Spanish
Tokyo.- A senior official of the Japanese ruling party said on Sunday that Tokyo does not rule out sending warships to defend the Strait of Hormuz, as requested by US President Donald Trump, but made it clear that the country must consider the possibility with "caution".
"Legally, we do not rule out the possibility of issuing a maritime security order under Article 82 of the Self-Defense Forces Law, but given the ongoing conflict, we must make a decision with caution," warned the head of the policy council of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Takayuki Kobayashi, during a program on public television NHK.
Kobayashi assured that the bar for sending warships to Ormuz "is very high", and highlighted his desire for the Japanese Government to "consider calmly" how the situation in the Middle East may evolve in order to take appropriate measures.Strait of Hormuz
It is the first reaction of a high-ranking Japanese official after Trump said on social media on Saturday that he expects "many countries" to send "warships" to the Strait of Hormuz, including Japan, to keep it "open and safe", after the announcement by the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojatba Jamenei, that the strategic passage would remain closed.
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«Let's hope that China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others affected by this artificial restriction send ships to the area so that the Strait of Hormuz ceases to be a threat from a totally headless nation», Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social. The Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world's oil passes every day, threatens to unleash a global energy crisis. Trump has stated that, "if necessary," the United States Navy will begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible, and United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has mentioned the possibility of creating an "international coalition" to escort ships through the passage.
