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BRUSSELS — European countries have rejected calls from the United States (US) to deploy naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz, stressing that they have no intention of engaging militarily in the escalating conflict with Iran, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

After a Brussels meeting of EU foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday that member states “have no desire to actively engage in military actions against Iran” and emphasised that Europe “has no interest in an open-ended war.”

Kallas highlighted that the EU is focused on strengthening maritime security but confirmed there is little appetite among member states to expand current missions such as Operation Aspides in the Red Sea or extend them to the Strait of Hormuz.

“Nobody wants to go actively in this war,” she said, noting the bloc’s priority remains safeguarding freedom of navigation and intensifying diplomatic efforts.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani echoed this position, underlining that EU naval missions tasked with escorting merchant vessels and anti-piracy operations are not designed to operate in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are willing to strengthen these missions,” he said, adding: “But I don’t think they can be expanded to include the Strait of Hormuz.”

Germany also ruled out sending forces to the Gulf. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Berlin “will not do so” and called for a swift political solution to the conflict.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned that deploying forces outside NATO’s area would require legal approval and parliamentary consent, noting: “It is not our war; we did not start it. We want a diplomatic solution and a swift end to the conflict.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer similarly dismissed US pressure to join a military effort in the region, stating that Britain “will not be drawn into a wider war” and stressing that any deployment must have a legal mandate.

Poland and Belgium also reaffirmed their focus on diplomacy and regional stability, rejecting calls from Washington to contribute naval assets.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski criticised US President Donald Trump for framing NATO as separate from the US while urging European participation in military operations in the Gulf.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever confirmed his government’s position, telling parliament that Belgium will not join any offensive alongside the US and Israel.

Earlier Monday, Trump said “numerous countries” were preparing to assist the US in reopening the Strait of Hormuz but did not name them, citing concerns they could be targeted by Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz has been at the centre of global energy market concerns since Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced its closure to most vessels amid US-Israeli attacks on the country that began on Feb 28.

Before the war, about 20 million barrels of oil passed through the strait daily. Its disruption has driven oil prices higher.

US-Israeli attacks on Iran have so far killed more than 1,200 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting US military assets. — BERNAMA-ANADOLU

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WASHINGTON — The United States is facing chaotic weather across the country on Monday, ranging from heat on the West Coast, to flooding in Hawaii to heavy snowfall in the northern states and storm warnings on the East Coast, reported German news agency dpa.

More than 200 million people or some 58 per cent of the population are under a weather alert, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). More than 4,500 flights were cancelled, according to the online portal FlightAware.

Warnings were issued for the East Coast for strong winds and possibly even tornadoes, the NWS announced. Numerous schools and other facilities closed early as a result.

Meanwhile, a snowstorm swept across several northern states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In Hawaii, heavy rainfall had previously caused flooding. 

The US West Coast is experiencing an unusual heat wave with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius in mid-March. — BERNAMA-dpa

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SAN JOSÉ — Nvidia chief Jensen Huang on Monday said the leading artificial intelligence chip maker is heading for space with a goal of powering orbiting data centers.

An Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) was launched into space late last year by startup Starcloud in what was touted as an off-planet debut for the technology, but now Nvidia is creating a module intended as a building block for data centers there.

“We’re working with our partners on a new computer called Vera Rubin Space One,” Huang said as he kicked off the GPU-maker’s annual developers conference in Silicon Valley.

“It’s going to go out to space and start data centers.”

Partners in the project include Starcloud, which is planning a November satellite launch that will mark the “cosmic debut” of the new Nvidia module.

A Starcloud-1 satellite, about the size of a small refrigerator, is expected to be packed with 100 times more computing power than any previous space-based operation.

“In 10 years, nearly all new data centers will be being built in outer space,” predicted Starcloud co-founder and chief Philip Johnston.

The startup explained that it plans to power Google AI with the Nvidia GPUs to show that large language models can run in outer space.

Nvidia described the Vera Rubin module as being optimized for AI, enabling real-time sensing, decision making, and autonomous functioning.

“Space computing, the final frontier, has arrived,” Huang said.

“With our partners, we’re extending Nvidia beyond our planet — boldly taking intelligence where it’s never gone before.”

Tech firms are floating the idea of building data centers in space and tapping into the sun’s energy to meet out-of-this-world power demands in a fierce artificial intelligence race.

More than a dozen startups, aerospace leaders, and major tech firms are involved in the development, testing, or planning of space-based data centers.

The big draw of space for data centers is power supply, with the option of synchronizing satellites to the sun’s orbit to ensure constant light beaming onto solar panels.

Building in space also avoids the challenges of acquiring land and meeting local regulations or community resistance to projects.

Critical technical aspects of such operations need to be resolved, however, particularly damage to the orbiting data centers from high levels of radiation and extreme temperatures, and the danger of them being hit by space junk. — AFP

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OIL was little changed after a volatile session in which investors weighed signs of less-tight conditions against rising military threats to energy infrastructure across the Middle East.

West Texas Intermediate traded above US$94 a barrel, after losing 5.3% on Monday, while Brent settled above US$100 for a third straight session. The US and Iran both stepped up attacks on energy assets in the region, including a drone strike on the massive Shah natural gas field in the United Arab Emirates.

Traders also assessed global attempts to blunt the worst of an impending supply shock stemming from the US-Israeli war on Iran, from an imminent release from the US emergency stockpile to a trickle of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point. 

President Donald Trump said the US is “hammering” Iran’s capacity to threaten commercial shipping through the Strait and reiterated appeals to other nations to help secure the passage. The waterway typically handles a fifth of global oil flows but has been effectively closed by Iran since the war began late last month.

The aftershocks of the most volatile week for the global Brent benchmark on record are continuing to reverberate. Daily trading ranges have been far wider than usual as the tumult in the Middle East creates what the International Energy Agency has described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

“Crude prices in the triple-digit area are usually short-lived, as demand destruction tends to appear very quickly,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president for trading at BOK Financial Securitires Inc. “While Iran seems to have dug in, the reality is: they have no navy, a shaken military, and they are being shut out from commerce from neighboring countries. Their need to negotiate will come quicker than not.”

A direct communications channel between the US and Iran has been reactivated in recent days, Axios reported, citing unidentified sources.

On Monday, Trump said he had requested China — among those he’s asked for support in Hormuz — to delay a summit with his counterpart Xi Jinping for about a month, saying it was important for him to remain in Washington to oversee the Iran war.

The spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate has widened in a sign of immediate supply relief in the US, after Washington prepared to release emergency reserves this week. — BLOOMBERG

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CHINESE and Taiwanese container liner earnings are showing how the industry is dealing with global ructions as the Iran war dims hopes of a Red Sea reopening and pushes up freight rates, a welcome break after a year of declining profits. 

China’s Orient Overseas International Ltd. and Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp. both reported steep drops in earnings as the prospect of a reopening of the Red Sea shipping route exacerbated oversupply issues that kept rates low for most of last year. Smaller Taiwanese liners Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. and Wan Hai Lines Ltd. also saw earnings contract.

Now the momentum looks set to shift even as uncertainties linger. While container liners have significantly less exposure to the Strait of Hormuz than oil tankers, the escalating war has effectively dashed hopes for a full Red Sea reopening this year, though forecasting remains difficult.

“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz may lead to a disruption to the container sails and port congestion in other alternate ports, which could introduce upside risk to the shipping rate,” Goldman Sachs analysts including Herbert Lu wrote in a note. 

Global liner rates rose 8.4% to US$2,123 per 40-foot container in the week ended March 12, the second consecutive week of growth after almost two months of declines, according to the Drewry World Container Index.

Asian container lines should expect sequential improvements in spot rates through the middle of the year, Citi analysts led by Kaseedit Choonnawat wrote in a note. That assumes a de-escalation of the conflict once US-Israel military objectives have been reached and a normalization of energy costs.

“Geopolitical developments are occurring with increasing frequency, and where any single event may take effect instantly and create far‑reaching ripple impacts, it has become increasingly difficult to forecast market trends with precision,” Orient Overseas said.

Disruption Risk

Disruption from the war is roiling global supply chains, forcing liners to tackle everything from transit halts to soaring fuel costs. 

“Complex transshipment arrangements have also increased operational challenges,” Yang Ming said, noting reduced capacity on its Middle East routes. That places “additional pressure on port operations and increasing the risk of terminal congestion while pushing up insurance premiums and bunker costs.” 

Cosco Shipping Holdings Co., China’s biggest carrier, and Evergreen Marine are among the Asian liners to have suspended Middle East bookings, joining global rivals including A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, Hapag-Lloyd AG and CMA CGM SA. Cosco Shipping is due to report full-year earnings on March 19.

Still, they may have an edge over European rivals, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Loh, with their “cost leadership and aggressive scaling-up,” while European counterparts are prioritizing schedule reliability and premium service offerings. 

“So far, the strategy of the Chinese and Taiwanese liners appears to be serving them well, boosting their 2026 outlook vis-a-vis global peers,” Loh said.

Liners with a greater presence in Asia trade, particularly on China-dominated routes, could also benefit from China’s export resilience in recent months, according to Loh. Chinese exports rose faster than expected in the first two months of the year, before US and Israeli strikes on Iran. That’s also lifting freight rates and padding margins.

Although bookings in the Middle East have been suspended, the impact is not yet on the scale of the initial Red Sea crisis, said Judah Levine, head of research at cargo booking platform Freightos Group.

From a container perspective, only about 3% of global volumes pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Levine said. 

That limited exposure could still turn into headwinds if the conflict drags on, said BI’s Lee A Klaskow. “If the strait is closed for more than three months, higher energy prices would be inflationary and destructive for demand.” — BLOOMBERG

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