TOKYO: A senior Japanese policy adviser said on Sunday the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to send its warships to help protect a shipping lane for oil in the Middle East, hours after US President Donald Trump’s call for other countries to do so. Iran has choked off the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities.
“I regard the threshold as extremely high” for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing Japanese laws, Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party , said.
South Korea said it was paying close attention to Trump’s call for Seoul and other countries to send warships to help protect oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “We are closely monitoring President Trump’s remarks on social media and will carefully consider the matter in close consultation with the US,” a South Korean presidential said.
