“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the FT, arguing that Europe and China depend heavily on Gulf oil.
He added that a lack of support from allies would have consequences for the alliance.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized what he described as insufficient support from some partners.
“We have a thing called NATO… We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine… But we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us,” he said.
According to The Financial Times, Trump has urged countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to join efforts to secure the shipping route through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes.