EU foreign ministers meet this Monday in Brussels to decide on a possible reinforcement of the naval presence in the Middle East to protect maritime circulation in the region.
The meeting starts at 10:15 in Brussels.
One of the topics on the table will be a possible reinforcement of the EU naval mission “Aspides”which aims to protect commercial ships in regions such as the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden or Western Indian Ocean, but which can also be deployed to the Strait of Hormuz.
This mission is currently prevented from resorting to the use of military force to protect the ships it escorts, as it does not have an executive mandate, which, to be assigned, needs to be unanimously approved by member states.
