Macron and Starmer host allies for summit on Hormuz maritime security

France and the United Kingdom are convening dozens of countries to advance plans for a multinational maritime force to secure the Strait of Hormuz, but Washington is not part of the discussions.

The meeting is taking place at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on Friday, chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with about 30 to 40 countries participating in person or by video conference.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni are also attending in person, but the full list of attendees has not been disclosed.

The talks will focus on what has been formally branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative, a defensive mission to restore free passage through the waterway once a lasting ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran is in place.

The strait has been closed since Iran imposed a blockade after the US and Israel launched their war on February 28. A fifth of the world’s oil usually passes through the chokepoint. The US has since compounded the disruption by imposing its own blockade on Iranian ports.

European leaders warned that the ongoing closure threatened consumers with higher inflation, food shortages, and flight cancellations as jet fuel supplies ran thin. More than 20,000 seafarers were trapped on board hundreds of vessels caught in the blockade.

‘Strictly defensive’

“The unconditional and immediate reopening of the strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again,” Starmer said in comments before the meeting, accusing Iran of “holding the world’s economy to ransom”.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the blockade’s economic consequences “major” for French citizens and businesses alike.

The initiative mirrored Europe’s earlier efforts to assemble a security force for Ukraine, and carried similar conditions: Deployment only when the conflict ends and security conditions allow.

A French presidential official speaking to the AFP news agency said allies would need “an Iranian commitment not to fire on passing ships and a US commitment not to block any ships leaving or entering the Strait of Hormuz” before any mission could proceed.

Washington’s absence from the table was deliberate. Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly defensive” and limited to non-belligerent countries.

The operation was partly a response to Trump, who had berated European allies for failing to join the war, called NATO members “cowards”, and told the UK: “You don’t even have a navy.”

Trump’s retaliatory US blockade of Iranian ports has raised the economic jeopardy even higher.

Military planning is already under way. The UK has discussed deploying mine-hunting drones from the ship RFA Lyme Bay, while France sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates to the region. French military spokesman Colonel Guillaume Vernet cautioned that the mission remained “in construction”.