Trump posted on Truth Social that he expects China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom to send warships to keep the strait of Hormuz "open and safe"1. In the same post, he claimed the US had "already destroyed 100% of Iran's Military capability" — then acknowledged Tehran could still "send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile." He pledged to be "bombing the hell out of the shoreline" in the meantime.
No named country has publicly committed forces, and each refusal has its own logic. China's special envoy Zhai Jun is touring the region pursuing mediation, not military deployment2 — and Chinese-linked vessels already transit Hormuz under de facto IRGC protection, with 11.7 million barrels of Iranian oil shipped to China since 28 February. Beijing has no incentive to join a fleet that would disrupt an arrangement already working in its favour. France offered to host Lebanon talks in Paris and lost a soldier to a drone strike in Iraqi Kurdistan; its posture is diplomatic, not naval. Japan and South Korea are the most exposed — both import the majority of their crude through Hormuz — but Japan's Article 9 constraints and South Korea's domestic political crisis limit what either can deploy without prolonged legislative action. The UK prepositioned Typhoons and F-35s across the region from January but has maintained deliberate distance from the offensive campaign.
Trump's demand also collides with contradictions inside his own administration. Energy Secretary Wright said the Navy is "simply not ready" for tanker escorts. Defence Secretary Hegseth told the public not to worry about Hormuz. Treasury Secretary Bessent promised escorts "as soon as militarily possible." Three officials, three positions, no escorts. The IRGC declared days earlier that "not a litre of oil" would pass through the strait. Since 28 February, at least 19 vessels have been attacked, daily transits have fallen from a historical average of 138 to single digits, and over 300 commercial ships remain stranded.
Into this vacuum, one commercial actor has moved. Greek shipowner George Prokopiou's Dynacom sent a second tanker, the Smyrni, through Hormuz with its AIS transponder off and armed guards on deck3. Dynacom is chartering at $440,000 per day — roughly four times pre-war rates. Five Dynacom tankers have now transited the strait. No other major shipping company has followed. Where five navies hesitate, a single Greek shipowner has decided the premium justifies the risk. The market's answer to the Hormuz blockade is not a multinational fleet but a private one — and the price of passage is set not by diplomacy but by the willingness of one firm to bet its crews against Iranian mines.
