(Adnkronos) – Italy is open to strengthening the European Union’s small Aspides naval mission in the Red Sea and its Atalanta anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa, but doubts these can be extended to the choked-off Strait of Hormuz global oil transport route, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.
“We are willing to strengthen the Aspides and Atalanta missions,” Tajani said at a European Council meeting in Brussels.
“But I don’t think these can be expanded to include the Strait of Hormuz, especially since they are defensive, anti-piracy missions,” he said.
Italy is the latest country after UK, Germany and Greece to react cautiously to United States president Donald Trump’s demand that allies help open the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments transit, as markets reel from supply disruptions caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, sending oil to over 100 dollars a barrel.
The EU’s Aspides mission was established in 2024 to protect ships from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebel group in the Red Sea. It currently has an Italian and a Greek ship under its direct command and can also call upon a French ship and another Italian vessel for support.
The Atalanta mission has between 1 and 6 combat vessels and 1 to 3 maritime patrol aircraft. Twenty-seven EU countries and nine non-EU countries participate in the mission.
