The UK will send a destroyer to the Middle East ahead of any international mission to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, its defense ministry says.
“The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow,” a ministry spokesperson tells AFP.
Britain and France said last month that military plans to secure the Strait of Hormuz were coming together and would succeed in restoring trade flows through the vital passage.
The MoD says deploying HMS Dragon would strengthen the confidence of commercial shipping and support mine clearance efforts once hostilities end.
At a two-day meeting in London in April involving more than 44 countries, military planners discussed the practicalities of a multinational mission led by the UK and France to protect navigation in the key waterway.
Some 40 countries are understood to have agreed to participate in plans for the mission to free up navigation in Hormuz.
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