Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen and acting Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen have announced, following a meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee, that there is political support in the Danish Parliament for Denmark to declare its readiness to provide a military contribution to a potential operation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Danish Shipping welcomes this announcement.

“The war between the USA, Israel and Iran has shown very clearly that it has enormous negative consequences for security of supply and the global economy when important waterways are blocked. There is a very obvious need for action to protect seafarers and civilian shipping in the area, just as has unfortunately also been the case in the Red Sea for several years now,” said Anne H. Steffensen, CEO of Danish Shipping.

After the meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee, neither Lars Løkke Rasmussen nor Troels Lund Poulsen would specify what a contribution might consist of.

“As one of the world’s largest maritime nations, we have a clear interest in, and responsibility for, contributing to security at sea. I therefore very much welcome the government’s proposal that Denmark should, in principle, be ready to be part of an international coalition to improve the security situation in the area,” said Anne H. Steffensen.

The initiative is a French-British one, which a number of countries — and now also Denmark — have declared themselves ready to support. A Danish military contribution would have to be approved by the Danish Parliament before it could be activated.