France is willing to help keep Strait of Hormuz open post-conflict, finance minister says

France is willing to work with the UK and other countries to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to shipping once the conflict in Iran is resolved, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said Tuesday at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.

France will not convoy ships alone in the strait, however, he said: “We’re not part of this conflict … but we are protecting our citizens on the ground.”

“This is going to be a peacetime operation to stabilize the strait,” Lescure said. “But first we have to get there. And that requires negotiations between Iran and the US.”

He spoke ahead of a videoconference scheduled for Friday among 40 countries willing to participate in the effort to reopen the waterway.

European officials at Semafor World Economy this week have warned that the EU faces stagflation — a combination of sluggish growth and high inflation — as a result of the closure of the strait, which normally carries about 20% of the world’s oil.

“We want to protect our economy, and the way to protect our economy is to get oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz,” Lescure said.

France is less vulnerable than some other countries in the bloc because its nuclear program has reduced dependence on energy imports. Even so, the Bank of France in March lowered its growth forecast for this year to 0.9% from 1%, citing the impact of higher energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty.

While Lescure said he was confident that there will be enough oil in France, he acknowledged that “May is now an iffy month” if the strait remains closed.

“We need this to be sorted in weeks, not months, because we know that once this is beginning to be sorted geopolitically, and hopefully peacefully, there’ll still be quite a few weeks of turbulence to go through before we go back to normal. If we ever do go back to normal,” he said.

France has also firmly opposed Iran’s plan to charge ships a toll for transit through the Strait of Hormuz. “We don’t like the idea of having a toll bridge on a place that belongs to all of us,” Lescure reiterated.