French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said a UK-France initiative to secure trade in the Strait of Hormuz was “not in competition” with a separate US mission.
The top diplomat was speaking in Abu Dhabi today (Friday) during a regional tour.
The UK-France mission “is now at an advanced stage, the planning has been finalized, and I have come to present the concept of this mission to a number of our closest partners in the region,” Barrot said in comments published by French news agency AFP.
The US, meanwhile, has launched what it’s calling a “maritime freedom construct” to ensure free and unimpeded access to shipping through the strait. The key waterway for transporting oil and gas has effectively been closed by Iran since the start of the war, sending energy prices soaring.
The US mission is “not of the same nature as the one we established … it comes as a sort of complement,” Barrot said. “It is not in competition with the initiative we have launched.”
