NATO turns down US call for help in Strait of Hormuz

• President Donald Trump said NATO and most of the other allies of the United States have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.

• Trump said NATO countries were supportive of the joint US-Israeli war, even as they did not want to get involved.

• The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.

• A few days ago, Trump sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting through the Strait of Hormuz to safeguard the critical waterway.

• Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.

• Trump said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.

• The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.

What is NATO?

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty. 

• NATO is a security alliance of 32 countries from North America and Europe. 

• In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

• The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024).

• These countries, called NATO Allies, are sovereign states that come together through NATO to discuss political and security issues and make collective decisions by consensus.

• NATO brings together sovereign countries from Europe and North America, consulting and cooperating in the field of security and defence.

• NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means.

• NATO enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

• NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty — Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.