On Wednesday 31 January, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that the aim was to launch the EU mission to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea, known as Aspides - which means ‘protection’ - “by 19 February at the latest”, which is the date of a Foreign Affairs Council meeting.
At the end of the informal meeting of European defence ministers in Brussels, Mr Borrell explained that the aim of the mission would be to protect merchant ships by intercepting attacks against them, but not to take part in any action against the Houthis on Yemeni territory. The mission will also act as a deterrent and strengthen maritime threat analysis.
Although Mr Borrell would not reveal which country would host the mission’s headquarters, on his arrival at the Council, the Greek minister Níkos Déndias announced that he would propose that his country “take charge of the administration of the operation” and that Larissa would be the headquarters of Aspides. According to a senior official, France and Italy are also interested.
The High Representative also reiterated the importance of the mission, which was set up in just a few weeks. “We are all worried about traffic using the Red Sea Canal. Many European companies are asking us to do this, because their business model is suffering greatly from the sharp rise in costs associated with having to go down to South Africa and around back to Europe”, he added. According to the IMF, container transport via the Red Sea has fallen by almost 30% this year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)