TOKYO: A senior Japanese policy adviser said on Sunday the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to send its warships to help protect a shipping lane for oil in the Middle East, hours after US President Donald Trump’s call for other countries to do so. Iran has choked off the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities. “I regard the threshold as extremely high” for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing Japanese laws, Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party , said.

The US president says he hopes China, France, Japan and South Korea will also send ships to defend the key oil shipping route.

“While it is not legally ruled out, given the ongoing conflict, it is something that should be judged carefully.”

Response to Donald Trump’s callout for military support in the waterway has so far been vague and reluctant

TOKYO: A senior Japanese policy adviser said on Sunday the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to send its warships to help protect a shipping lane for oil in the Middle East,…

Trump said his administration had contacted seven countries asking for support to allow shipping through the vital waterway

Trump urges allies to secure the Strait of Hormuz, but Japan and Australia refuse to send naval support amid rising tensions.