US asks Australia to join coalition protecting shipping in the Persian Gulf

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in Australia, bearing a request for Australia to join operations protecting shipping in the Persian Gulf.

Australia is giving “very serious consideration” to a US request to join an international coalition to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf but the Morrison Government is yet to reach a decision.

The US has asked Australia to take part in Operation Sentinel to protect shipping near the Strait of Hormuz, from Iranian interference.

Tensions have been running high in the Gulf since Iranian commandos seized a British-flagged tanker last month.

Speaking in Sydney at the end of the annual AUSMIN meeting between US and Australian officials, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said the request was “a very serious one” from the US.

“We will ultimately, as we always do, decide what is in our own sovereign interests” and that “no decision has yet been made”.

Senator Reynolds did not say how long it would be before Australia made up its mind, what our commitment might be or whether our personnel would be under US command.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne. Picture: AFP

She was speaking to the media alongside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne.

Mr Pompeo said the US was a Pacific nation committed to the region.

“We care deeply about what happens here — and we are here to stay,” he said.

“I want Australians to know they can always rely on the United States of America and just as we talk about Britain as a special relationship, we think of this as an unbreakable relationship.”

On Saturday, Mr Esper said he was in favour of placing ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia, less than a week after the US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

But asked yesterday if the US would like to deploy missiles in northern Australia, the Americans avoided answering.

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Mr Pompeo said that “with respect to weapon systems, it is of course the case that when we employ the systems around the world with our friends and allies we do so with consent, do so with respect to their sovereignty and we make decisions based on mutual benefit to each of the countries that work on those particular sets of systems”.

Mr Esper added “we are talking about conventional weapons, not nuclear”.

The visiting Americans were to dine with Prime Minister Scott Morrison last night.

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Originally published as US asks Australia to join coalition protecting shipping in the Persian Gulf