U.S. President Donald Trump may delay his China trip due to the Iran war, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday it’s not to pressure Beijing on the Strait of Hormuz.
“If the meeting for some reason was rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics,” the secretary said on CNBC. “The president wants to remain in D.C. to co-ordinate the war and travelling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal.”
Trump has suggested he may delay the trip as he seeks to ramp up pressure on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices, which have soared during the Iran war.
In an interview Sunday with the Financial Times, Trump said China’s reliance on oil from the Middle East means it ought to help with a new coalition he is trying to put together to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait after Iran’s threats have throttled global flows of oil.
Trump called for a coalition of nations to help reopen the vital shipping route, specifically naming China, U.K., Japan, France and South Korea.
Trump said he’d like to know before the trip whether Beijing will help. “We may delay,” he said in the interview.
He also warned that the NATO alliance faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.
Countries wary over Trump’s call
Trump’s call drew a wary response from allies, who voiced support for diplomatic efforts to reopen the route but signalled caution about the possibility of military action.
Japan said it had no plans to dispatch naval vessels to the strait, and Australia, which has said it would send a military surveillance aircraft and missiles to help defend the U.A.E., said it would not send its navy.
Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius ruled out his country’s participation in any military activity in the Iran war, including efforts to reopen the strait. “This is not our war, we have not started it.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday that diplomacy was the right way to solve the crisis in the strait and there were no naval missions Italy is involved in that could be extended to the area.
U.S. President Donald Trump said NATO could be at risk if he doesn’t get help protecting the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil route near Iran.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he is working with allies on a plan to reopen the strait, but “will not be drawn into the wider war.”
Starmer said Britain is discussing with the U.S. and allies in Europe and the Gulf the possibility of using mine-hunting drones that the U.K. has in the region. But he signalled the U.K. is unlikely to dispatch a warship.
Germany would not take part in the war nor in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open through military means, a government spokesperson said on Monday. Greece, another NATO ally, also said it will not engage in any military operations in the strait.
The uncertainty underscores just how much the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have reshaped global politics in the past two weeks. Calling off the face-to-face visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could have its own major economic consequences: Relations between Washington and Beijing have been fraught as both sides have threatened the other with steep tariffs over the past year.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said only that China and the U.S. have maintained communication on Trump’s visit.
“Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations,” Lin Jian said at a daily briefing.
Price of oil skyrocketing
Trump’s comments came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday in Paris for a new round of trade talks that were meant to pave the way for Trump’s trip. The U.S. and China have declared a truce that has prevented both sides from levying duelling tariffs, but the stakes remain high.
In the early days of the Iran conflict, Trump had said U.S. navy vessels would escort oil tankers through the strait, and downplayed the threat posed by Iran. But as oil prices soared, he and his administration have been forced to consider new options — including the idea, broached this weekend, for other countries to join the push with their own warships. So far, none has yet formally heeded the call.
As Iran escalates attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. says it’s confident it will be able to get ships moving again. For The National, CBC’s Lyndsay Duncombe breaks down why reopening the vital waterway likely won’t be as simple, fast or as safe as the White House wants.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend in Florida that the U.S. had spoken to “about seven” nations about offering military support. He wouldn’t say which ones, though, and demurred when he was asked directly about China — though he subsequently suggested that he’d made such an offer to Beijing.
“China’s an interesting case study,” he said, noting its reliance on Gulf oil. “So I said, ‘Would you like to come in’ and we’ll find out. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.”
War in Iran has sent the price of oil skyrocketing, which has raised the price Americans pay at the pump, just as the midterm election season begins to heat up. China, though, has faced its own economic pressures and recently lowered its 2026 target for growth slightly to 4.5 per cent to five per cent, its slowest projected growth since 1991 — meaning prolonged disruptions in the strait could have long-term impacts for Beijing as well.
Iran has reportedly laid about a dozen mines in the critical shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz as the war in the Middle East continues to escalate. Andrew Chang explains what we know about Iran’s arsenal, and why underwater mines can be so devastating and difficult to remove.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty Images
Lin, at the briefing in Beijing, did not respond directly to questions about Trump’s call for outside help in the strait. He noted the impact on goods and energy trade and repeated his government’s call for an end to the fighting.
“China once again calls on all parties to stop military actions immediately, avoid further escalation of tensions, and prevent instability in the region from having a greater impact on global economic development,” he said.
