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India and Germany have joined a chorus of world leaders warning against the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the prospects of tolls levied by Iran on shipping traffic.
World leaders have warned that the strait is protected as a corridor of free trade under international law. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressed his concerns directly to the US President Donald Trump in a phone call, in which he also said any ceasefire and security arrangement in the Iran war would need the endorsement of the UN. “First, it needs an international mandate, preferably from the UN Security Council,” he said.
Singapore and Italy added their voices to those warnings amid signs of the toll the bottleneck imposed by the war is already imposing on the global economy. On April 7, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan warned against the erosion of the UN laws of the sea if Iran, Oman or the US sought to collect revenue.
“There is a right of transit passage, it’s not a privilege to be granted by the bordering state,” said Mr Balakrishnan. “It’s not a licence to be subjugated at all. It is not a toll to be paid. It is a right of all nations’ ships to traverse.”
India's Foreign Minister is travelling to the Gulf region this weekend – his ministry said the country would not talk to Iran about paying tolls. India's government is asking for “free and safe passage” for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a spokesman said.
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, said restrictions are not acceptable under international law. “If Iran were to be allowed to impose additional tariffs on transit through the strait, this could continue to lead to unforeseeable economic consequences,” she said.
The UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said a toll would set a dangerous precedent. IMO countries adopted the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, or Unclos, which outlines the rules that govern straits used for international navigation.
“According to Unclos, ships enjoy the right of transit passage through international straits. States bordering straits shall not hamper that right or suspend the transit passage,” an IMO representative said.
Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc, laid out the legal reasons Hormuz traffic could not be subject to levies.
“The Strait was not built, engineered, financed or constructed by any state,” he wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday. “It is a natural passage governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees transit as a matter of right; not a privilege to be granted, withheld or weaponised.”
The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told The National that imposing tolls and taxes was a dangerous departure. “We are really focusing on the freedom of navigation in these waters,” Ms Kallas said during a visit to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. “Because if we go down that slippery slope of giving the right to ask tolls or taxes over these waters that have been open before, then I think we will see this elsewhere in the world as well, and this is a very dangerous development.”
Keir Starmer used a round-table call with regional defence chiefs during his current visit to warn Iran must not “hold the Strait of Hormuz to ransom”. “There’s clarity here in the region and clarity from us as well, the United Kingdom, our position is – ‘open’ means open for safe navigation,” he said. “That means toll-free navigation and that vessels can get through.”
In a speech on Thursday night, Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, was due to say there could be no national rights in the Strait. “The fundamental freedoms of the seas must not be unilaterally withdrawn or sold off to individual bidders,” Ms Cooper was to tell the City of London late on Thursday. “Nor can there be any place for tolls on an international waterway.”
Mark Rutte, the Nato Secretary General, told European leaders that President Trump wanted concrete commitments within the next few days for help securing the Strait of Hormuz if the ceasefire remains in place after peace talks in Islamabad on Saturday.
Mr Trump himself said a “joint venture” to control the strait with Iran and Oman would be a “beautiful thing”.
