April 25, 2026
Germany will send naval vessels to the Mediterranean to be ready to join an international operation to secure shipping in the Strait of Hormuz if and when parliament approves a deployment, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told the Rheinische Post.
“To save time,” Pistorius said, Berlin will move ships into the Mediterranean so they can quickly join a mission once the Bundestag issues a mandate. He stressed that any deployment into the Strait of Hormuz requires parliamentary approval.
Pistorius said the government would send a minesweeper and a support ship, and that other deployments would be scaled back in coordination with partners. He likened the approach to preparations made ahead of the EU Aspides operation in the Red Sea in February 2024, which he said “substantially accelerated the beginning of the deployment.”
The move follows Iran effectively blocking traffic through the narrow strait in response to attacks by the US and Israel that began on February 28. Although a ceasefire has been declared, Iran has kept the waterway closed amid a US blockade of Iranian ports. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and its near two-month closure has had significant global economic effects.
Germany has resisted joining the war itself—a decision that, along with similar choices by some NATO allies, drew criticism from US President Donald Trump—but Berlin has pledged to help secure shipping through the strait with minesweeping and reconnaissance support.