TOKYO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Wednesday was urged by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to consider joining a coalition to help monitor and protect the Strait of Hormuz.
"I'll be discussing this with them," he said ahead of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya.
Iwaya said later in the day that Japan will consider the proposition carefully and the role it could possibly play in trying to ensure the safety of commercial vessels trying to navigate the strategically key sea lane, in twine with Japan's own need for oil and its close ties with both Tehran and Washington.
Iwaya said last month, however, that he had no plans to deploy members of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to the Middle East to protect commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Amid a possible plan by the United States to form a military coalition to be present in some key Middle Eastern shipping lanes, Iwaya said that diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between Washington and Teheran remained the most important way forward.
In June, two oil tankers, one operated by a Japanese firm, were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz, with tensions rising further after a U.S. military drone was downed in the region among other incidents.
But Iwaya pointed out recently that there have been no more similar attacks (against Japanese interests) in the area and that those against Japan specifically are thought to be "in a temporary lull at present."
The Strait of Hormuz is a key gateway for oil from the Middle East to reach resource-poor Japan, which is the world's fourth-largest oil importer and relies heavily on the Middle East for the majority of its crude oil.
Its pacifist Constitution, however, could make it difficult for it to send forces to the Middle East, especially to a potentially active theater, for anything other than peacekeeping missions, and, even this could be constitutionally tricky, experts on the matter have said.
Article 9 of the Constitution states that Japan forever renounces war as a means to settle international disputes and also prohibits Japan from maintaining war potential.
Japan, however, has been urging Iran to abide by commitments it made under a 2015 nuclear agreement with several world powers and not take further steps that could potentially damage the accord, despite U.S. President Donald Trump pulling his country out of the nuclear deal.
The international nuclear accord inked in 2015 was between Iran and six major powers, including the United States, at the time, China, Britain, France, Germany and Russia.
Meanwhile, in the defense chiefs' meeting here it was agreed that three-way cooperation with South Korea remained important to address issues pertaining to the Korean Peninsula, Iwaya said, and that an information-sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul should be kept in place.
Amid current trade and wartime labor-linked disharmony between Tokyo and Seoul, Seoul had said it might pull out of the bilateral General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).
This would be in response to Japan tightening some export controls on materials essential to South Korea's technology industry, as well as Japan removing it from its "white list" of nations entitled to simplified export control procedures, a move that further saw ties sink between the two neighbors.
