European leaders have repeatedly said they would help open the contested waterway once the fighting stops, but it hasn’t been clear what that would look like in practice. U.S. President Donald Trump has displayed increasing frustration over the lack of help from America’s European allies in NATO, openly entertaining a U.S. withdrawal from the alliance.
The chancellor stressed the need for calm, telling reporters that “we do not want — I do not want — NATO to split. NATO is a guarantor of our security, including and especially in Europe. We must continue to keep a cool head here.”
Merz told reporters in Berlin on Thursday that he had explained to Trump by phone that Germany would only participate in securing safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz once the war ends and if two conditions are met.
Trump announced Tuesday evening that the U.S. had reached a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran, subject to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, a global energy chokepoint.
The German leader called the ceasefire a “ray of hope,” but warned that “the past 24 hours alone have shown just how fragile the ceasefire in the region is, how uncertain the situation remains in the Strait of Hormuz, and how far apart the positions of the parties involved still are. The negotiations that now lie ahead will be very challenging.”
Merz said he would speak to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday evening and underscored that Germany would engage in diplomacy to end the war.
“We do not want this war — which has become a transatlantic stress test — to further strain relations between the United States and its European NATO partners,” the chancellor said.