Trump's China trip could be delayed as he seeks help on Iran war | AP News
Trump side-stepped diplomacy on his way to war in Iran. Now, he’s asking China and others for help
1 of 7 |
The US Treasury Secretary said any delay to Trump’s month-end trip to Beijing would not be because of disagreements over the Iran war or efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Read More
2 of 7 |
Keir Starmer spoke after U.S. President Donald Trump said he’d demanded U.S. allies send warships to open the key oil shipment route. He 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.
Read More
3 of 7 |
European countries on Monday demanded to know more about U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans for the war on Iran and when the conflict might end as they weighed whether to agree to his call to send warships to help shore up security in the Persian Gulf.
Read More
4 of 7 |
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Read More
5 of 7 |
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrives to give a press statement at the OECD Headquarters, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Read More
6 of 7 |
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, left, shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, during a bilateral meeting between the United States and China, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)
Read More
7 of 7 |
President Donald Trump speaks during a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Read More
By SEUNG MIN KIM, WILL WEISSERT and BILL BARROW
Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share
Share
- Copy
Link copied
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump relied on his gut and largely side-stepped diplomatic coordination as he made the decision to launch strikes on Iran with Israel. But now with the war’s economic and geopolitical consequences unfurling rapidly, he’s cajoling allies and other global powers to help mop up the mess.
Trump says he’s asked roughly a half-dozen other countries to send warships to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, a consequential waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s traded oil flows. So far, none has committed. Trump even indicated he would use his long-planned trip to China to pressure Beijing to help with a new coalition meant to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait — a notion that his treasury secretary later downplayed.
“We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours ... we want them to come and help us with the strait,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, listing Japan, China, South Korea and several countries in Europe as examples. Trump has argued that the shipping channel is not something the United States needs because of its own access to oil.
It’s the type of bullying to action that has secured key foreign policy wins for the Republican president in his second term, like prompting nearly all NATO countries to up their defense spending last year after he spent years accusing allies of freeloading off American largess, and using tariffs to extract investments and concessions from trade partners.
Related Stories
Treasury warns banks of ‘red flags’ tied to customers in the US illegally
1 MIN READ
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refuses to say whether Trump remains exempt from IRS audits
3 MIN READ
US sanctions Iran’s largest digital asset exchange Nobitex and 3 others
1 MIN READ
But with oil prices soaring and the Middle East rattled by violence, there’s little inclination from other countries to heed Trump’s call.
AP AUDIO: Trump side-stepped diplomacy on his way to war in Iran. Now, he’s asking China and others for help
AP’s Lisa Dwyer reports that President Trump is upping the pressure on China.
Read More
China is noncommittal. France is a maybe on escorting ships, when “circumstances permit.” Britain is unlikely to dispatch a warship.
In Trump’s view, this lack of appetite for helping to secure the strait confirms his suspicions about the benefits of working with other countries, because “if we ever needed help, they won’t be there for us.”
“I’ve always felt that was a weakness of NATO,” Trump said Monday. “We were going to protect them, but I always said when in need, they won’t protect us.”
Yet not long after, Trump insisted the U.S. didn’t need help from anybody because “we’re the strongest nation in the world.”
White House: Trump ‘right’ to demand help with Strait of Hormuz
Nonetheless, the pressure campaign from the White House is continuing.
Trump’s top spokeswoman, when asked why other nations that were neither consulted nor involved should put their troops in danger to secure the Strait of Hormuz, argued that other countries were benefiting directly from Trump’s attempt to disarm the Iranian regime.
“This is something not just the United States but the entire Western world has agreed with for many, many years,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
Separately, Trump signaled in a Sunday interview with the Financial Times that “we’d like to know” before he leaves for a late-March summit in Beijing whether China will help secure the strait because of its reliance on Middle Eastern oil, adding: “We may delay.”
In an afternoon event in the Oval Office, Trump revealed that he has asked China to delay the trip “a month or so.”
“We’re speaking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war ... I have to be here, I feel,” Trump said.
Yet calling off the face-to-face visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could have its own major economic consequences as the relations between the world’s two biggest economies remain fraught over tariffs and other issues. In a CNBC interview Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said any delay would not be due to disputes over the strait and explicitly urged investors not to react negatively should Trump put off his trip.
“If the meeting for some reason is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics,” Bessent said from Paris, where he was meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng for a new round of trade talks that were meant to pave the way for the trip.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing, Lin Jian, 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.
No takers so far on Trump’s call for a coalition to secure Hormuz
In the early days of the Iran conflict, Trump had said U.S. Navy vessels would escort oil tankers through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, 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.
Trump told reporters that he has asked about seven countries to participate in a coalition that would help oil tankers navigate the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says is only cut off for the United States, Israel and their allies.
In addition to China, Japan and South Korea, Trump has made appeals for help to Britain and France.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that Britain is working with allies on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but “will not be drawn into the wider war.”
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, Starmer said. But he signaled the U.K. is unlikely to dispatch a warship.
Other countries have similarly been resistant to get involved.
Australia’s Transport Minister Catherine King told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday that “we won’t be sending a ship to the Strait of Hormuz,” although she wasn’t aware of such a request from the U.S.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters in Brussels on Monday that while Italy backs reinforcing EU naval missions in the Red Sea, “I don’t think these missions can be expanded to include the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump administration downplays oil price spikes
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.
Bessent downplayed the war’s impact on oil prices and accused the media of “trying to make it into some crisis that it’s not.” Echoing Trump, the secretary insisted prices would come down after the conflict ends.
“I don’t know how many weeks it will be, but on the other side of this, the world will be safer, and we will be better supplied,” Bessent said on CNBC.
China, which faces its own economic pressures, recently lowered its 2026 target for growth slightly to 4.5% to 5%, its slowest projected growth since 1991, meaning prolonged disruptions in the strait could have long-term impacts for Beijing as well.
At the White House on Monday, Trump was asked what his aides have told him about how long gas prices will remain high.
Trump dismissed the question, showing once again that he ultimately relies on his own instincts.
“I don’t need advisers to tell me that,” he said. “I know what it is.”
Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.
Kim covers the White House for The Associated Press. She joined the AP in 2022 and is based in Washington. Kim is also a political analyst for CNN.
Weissert covers the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington.
Barrow covers U.S. politics for The Associated Press. He is based in Atlanta.