Strait of Hormuz: Merchant Shipping

Private Notice Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assist in opening the Strait of Hormuz to merchant traffic; and what advice is being given by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre to UK merchant shipping.

My Lords, I start by paying tribute to the US service personnel killed or injured in the region recently. All our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends.

The Government remain committed to supporting the safe and secure flow of merchant shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global trade, energy supplies and international stability. Respect for sovereignty over territorial seas and freedom of navigation are fundamental principles of international law. We stand ready to deploy the wider multinational military mission to support freedom of navigation, should conditions allow. We continue to work closely with international partners, the International Maritime Organization and the shipping industry to support the resumption of normal maritime traffic through the strait. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre continues to provide timely security information and situational awareness.

My Lords, we cannot allow the highly damaging closure of the Strait of Hormuz to continue indefinitely. We have two bases in the Middle East, HMS “Jufair” in Bahrain and Duqm in Oman. They were established to support our ships that were there to help the American Fifth Fleet and others in ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz stayed open, but that clearly is not happening. Does my noble friend the Minister believe that the time has come—we have the “Lyme Bay” out there, with minesweeping assets, along with HMS “Dragon”, which is a destroyer —to give more help to the Americans purely with the clearance of the straits? I am not talking about getting involved with their larger war, which one might have different views about, but those straits are so important that we cannot allow them just to be kept closed, with all the damage that that is doing to the world economy and the risk to other straits around the world.

I thank my noble friend for his question. His Majesty’s Government are doing all that they can to see the restoration of a functional ceasefire and to bring about a de-escalation of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. As my noble friend says, the opening of the strait as an international waterway that is safe and secure is of benefit to us all. Through the multinational military mission, we continue to seek the permissive environment that would allow us to ensure that shipping had the confidence to use the Strait of Hormuz. He points to RFA “Lyme Bay” and HMS “Dragon”, which are in the region to support that permissive environment. We hope that can be brought about as soon as possible.

My Lords, I declare my interest as an honorary captain in the Royal Navy Reserve. I draw the Minister’s attention to the welfare of the seafarers in the Merchant Navy. While those ships are blocked in the straits, a lot of their seafarers have been onboard for a long time. I wonder what more His Majesty’s Government can do to support them.

The RFA provides a crucial service for the Royal Navy and our operations across the region and the world. My noble friend is right to point out the importance of that crew. We continue to discuss with them, their unions and their crews how we can support them in respect of their welfare, because we recognise the significance and importance of those crews.

My Lords, I used to deal with mines a little, in clearance and so on. What is it that we cannot do now that we used to be able to do? Can we not just clear mines as we used to do, or is that too difficult?

That is an interesting question. I will talk about the way in which the Royal Navy is developing. It used to be that the provision of a mine-hunting ship was the way in which mine-hunting activity was conducted. In looking for an expression of power and symbolism, a mine-hunter still has a role to play, and we still have mine-hunting ship capability. However, as you can see with the development of RFA “Lyme Bay” and the protection that HMS “Dragon” provides for it, should that permissive environment come forward, RFA “Lyme Bay” is the future of providing the mine-hunting capability that the noble Lord rightly points to. We have a big platform upon which there are numerous uncrewed systems, weapons and so on that we can use above, on or under the water. In this case, they provide a real, modern capability and capacity, working with our friends and allies, to deal with mines and to help in respect of the mine clearance.

My Lords, in two of his answers the Minister has talked about conditions being right and there being consensus, but is not part of the problem that we need to be working now with the United States in particular to persuade it to look for a way that will create those conditions? While the attacks go on between Iran and the United States, the conditions are not going to be there and the problem is not going to be resolved. What conversations are His Majesty’s Government having with the United States?

The noble Baroness makes an important point. We continue to speak to the Americans and discuss with them how we can see an operational and functioning ceasefire restored. The memorandum of understanding worked for a time and we saw an increase in the number of ships using the Strait of Hormuz. From memory, I think that, before the conflict, some 130 ships were using the strait per day; after the memorandum of understanding was signed and was seen to be operating for a number of days, between 20 and 30 ships were using it. That has reduced for obvious reasons—yesterday, there was one ship. Getting a situation in place which has the confidence of all the nations that use the Strait of Hormuz, as a functioning arrangement between Iran and the United States, is clearly in all our interests. We have certainly talked to the Americans about how we might support them in the re-establishment of that.

My Lords, on the “Today” programme I heard an American former defence expert saying that the US-Iran war had got to such a point that the only thing for the Americans to do was to bomb for the next month. What is the Minister’s view?

We have always said that any support that we have given to the Americans has been for defensive purposes. As the noble and learned Baroness will know, we have continually called for a ceasefire, as it initially was, the maintenance of the memorandum of understanding and the de-escalation of activity by any nation. We stand by that.

My Lords, is it not the case that we need to be realistic that the greatest military power in the world cannot put enough arms in that area to resolve the present conflict and the only way this is going to be resolved is by discussion and debate? Does the Minister agree that we need to increase that dialogue?

I agree. The point we continue to make to our friends and allies in the region, and to the Americans, is that, in the end, dialogue, discussion and an agreement acceptable to all are what we all need to work towards. My noble friend is right to point that out, and we will continue to do all we can to bring that about.

My Lords, it has been reported that the new Prime Minister supports increasing foreign aid spending back up to 0.7% of GDP. The Government have previously confirmed that all the money saved from cutting aid spending has been allocated to the Ministry of Defence. If the United Kingdom wishes to assist in opening the Strait of Hormuz in a meaningful way then our Armed Forces must, as all noble Lords have said, receive the necessary funds and assets. Can the Minister confirm that, if foreign aid spending is increased, the money will not be taken from the defence budget?