WARSAW, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Poland is considering supporting a U.S.-led mission to protect the Strait of Hormuz, but has not made a formal decision yet.
“From our point of view actions to stabilize this region would be justified,” a spokeswoman at Poland’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement.
“We have to wait to work out whether, and if so, in what form Poland could join such an initiative,” she added.
It’s unclear when Poland, which has sought to strengthen ties with the U.S. since the Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in 2015, will make a decision on the matter.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz first made the comments to German news agency DPA on Friday.
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Jacek-Czaputowicz.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz leave after their news conference at Lazienki Palace in Warsaw, Poland February 12, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has reiterated that Germany will not take part in a U.S.-led naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz and would instead prefer to form a European mission.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she believed the idea of a European naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz would be discussed again at informal meetings of European foreign and defence ministers in Finland later this month.
The U.S. has pushed to secure the strait, which lies between Oman and Iran and through which almost a fifth of the world’s oil passes, as tensions haven risen between Iran, Britain and the United States in recent months.
Poland has in the past offered military support to U.S.-led missions – its soldiers took part in missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Stephen Powell )
