Australia will join a summit organised by France and Britain this week to organise a global coalition to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after the war between the US, Israel and Iran ends.
Neither the US nor Iran are expected to play a role in the multinational effort, which is not connected to Trump’s moves to impose a blockade on Iranian vessels using the strait in a bid to strengthen his hand in negotiations with Iran.
The European-led moves to reopen the crucial waterway came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese headed to Brunei and Malaysia on Tuesday to shore up Australia’s fuel supplies.
If Albanese cannot attend the summit in person because of his existing travel commitments, he could join the meeting by video link or send a senior colleague such as Foreign Minister Penny Wong to represent Australia.
Paris is a likely venue for the summit, which around 40 nations have been invited to attend, but that has yet to be confirmed.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the conference would involve “countries prepared to contribute alongside us to a peaceful multinational mission aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the strait”.
“This strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties to the conflict, is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances permit,” he said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the summit would discuss a “co-ordinated, independent, multinational plan” to safeguard shipping in the strait.
Britain had convened “more than 40 nations who share our aim to restore freedom of navigation” and the summit will discuss ways to protect shipping “when the conflict ends”, Starmer said.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Tuesday that Australia would “most definitely participate in that summit”.
“We are very keen to see … an opening by diplomatic means of the Strait of Hormuz,” Conroy told ABC radio.
The blockade by US Central Command – an act of war – began at midnight on Tuesday (AEST) to choke Tehran’s key economic lifeline after talks in Islamabad failed to reach agreement on Iran’s nuclear capability and other issues that could end the seven-week-old conflict.
“We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world,” US President Donald Trump said as the blockade started, after promising to “eliminate” any Iranian fast-attack ship that approached the US Navy.
Trump said the Iranians had contacted the US seeking to resume talks, and the Associated Press reported a new round of in-person meetings was under consideration, citing three officials familiar with the situation.
“We’ve been called by the other side; they’d like to make a deal very badly,” Trump said at the White House.
CNN reported that at least 15 American warships were part of the blockade on its first day, citing a senior US official. The vessels’ mission is to prevent commercial ships from transiting Iranian ports on either side of the strait, especially those carrying oil to buyers such as China.
It follows a de facto blockade by Iran since the war broke out on February 28, using the threat of mines or drone attacks to bring traffic in the crucial shipping passage to a standstill.
However, at least one sanctioned oil tanker appeared to have exited the Strait of Hormuz carrying Iranian oil on the first day of the American blockade.
A Comoros-flagged oil tanker, the Elpis, navigated the strait after departing an Iranian port, according to publicly available data from MarineTraffic.
The vessel was sanctioned by the US last year, when it was operating under a different name, and is a part of Iran’s shadow fleet of tankers transporting oil.
While the ship appeared to have transited the strait towards the Gulf of Oman, tracking data showed it slowed down overnight and had stopped by sunrise on Tuesday (Iran time).
Despite escalating tensions in the strait, Vice President JD Vance – who led the US negotiating team in Pakistan last week – was optimistic that talks with Iran could be resumed. “We made a lot of progress,” he told Fox News. “They moved in our direction … but they didn’t move far enough.”
The New York Times reported that Iran had offered to suspend nuclear enrichment for five years, which the US rejected, demanding a 20-year moratorium, citing three officials familiar with the talks.
Vance said another red line for the US was that Iran must surrender its existing stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. He also said the Iranian negotiating team in Pakistan did not appear to have the authority to cut a deal, and needed to seek approval from the supreme leader “or somebody else” in Tehran.
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.