Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that countries benefiting from the shipping route should help protect it.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said, according to the British newspaper.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” he added.
'A thing called NATO'
“We have a thing called NATO,” he told the Financial Times. “We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us."
He added: “Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them, but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure that they’d be there.”
Over the weekend, Trump called on China as well as European and Asian allies to help prevent Iran from blockading the strategic waterway.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments pass through the strait between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to media reports.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said warships from China, Japan, South Korea, France and Britain should join a "team effort" to escort ships through the waterway during the conflict in the Middle East.
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Source: FT, Reuters, The Hill