Donald Trump said the US doesn't need the Strait of Hormuz opened at all while on his visit to China - as attacks on ships and disruptions in the area keep oil markets on edge.
The President made the comment to Fox News in a taped interview in which he cast American military interventions in the shipping route as a public service to other countries.
He reportedly said: "We don’t need it at all. We don’t need it at all." The comments emerged as the price of crude oil climbed by more than 1% today with the number of ships passing through the Strait still far below figures from before the Iran war began
According to both leaders talks went smoothly but chaos has erupted behind the scenes with several instances of rows and tensions between US staff and Chinese officials during the visit.
Trump has said the US and China “feel very similar” about the Iran war, adding that he and Xi Jinping have "settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to solve".
