Since this week, the EU is exploring a possible European mission for security in the Red Sea

The high representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, will work from this week with the EU Member States to explore the possibility of creating a European mission to promote security in the Red Sea following attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

“The process of coordination and debate with Member States on the new mission (…) will begin this week. “We are at the beginning of the process and in the end it will be up to the Member States to agree on whether we command said mission and to agree on the form of the mandate or its modalities,” explained the community spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peter Stano, at the daily press conference of the European Comission.

Borrell had already announced last week from Lisbon that he would present to the EU Member States a proposal at community level to create a mission that “contributes to security in the Red Sea” after the attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which The European Union has condemned and branded “unacceptable violations of international law.”

“(The attacks) constitute a threat to maritime security and navigation and must stop,” said Stano, who considered it “obvious” that the EU has an interest in reestablishing naval traffic and maritime security in an area “that is an important commercial channel.”

The forum in which Borrell would begin the procedures to present this proposal to the Member States is the EU Political and Security Committee, responsible for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defense Policy of the EU, whose next meetings are on Tuesday, January 9 and Wednesday, January 10, this week.

“We are going to put it on the table in the first meetings now that will be held next week in Brussels. But it is not a quick thing, deciding 27 (Member States) takes time,” Borrell reiterated this Sunday to EFE in Beirut.

Almost 15% of world maritime trade passes through the Red Seaincluding 8% of world grain trade, 12% of seaborne oil trade, and 8% of world liquefied natural gas trade.

This area has been immersed in instability in recent months as a result of the war in Israel against the Islamist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip since, to show their support for the Palestinian group, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking commercial ships.

Almost twenty shipping companies recently decided to redirect the routes of their merchant ships along the Good Hope route in South Africa to limit Houthi attacks, which means for freighters adding 10 days on average to their trips, in addition to an increase in prices. transportation costs.

To counter these attacksUSA recently announced a military coalition made up of more than 20 nations, including several from the EU, under the name ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’.