EU's Red Sea plan shows it seeks autonomy: China Daily editorial

By moving ahead with its plan to establish its own naval operation to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the European Union has shown it wants to keep strategic autonomy and not act under the banner of the United States.

According to reports, Spain, which opposed previous plans, will not block the latest one, clearing the way for the details to be worked out. There is now a push to get final approval of the plan at the EU foreign ministers' meeting on Jan 22. "The idea is to have a European mission that can be operational as soon as possible," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

While 10 countries supported the US-led air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, including the EU members Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, vowing in a joint statement released by the White House "not to hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways", the EU is right to try and unite the bloc so it can act on its own initiative.

To join a US-led operation in the Red Sea for shipping protection means, first of all, submitting to US decisions on what actions are to be taken, and thus becoming tools for its pursuit of its broader agenda in the region.

US "interests" in the crisis do not necessarily align with the priorities set out by the EU.

Besides, in response to the intensifying US-led air strikes, Houthi militants have reacted fiercely by vowing that all US and UK ships are "legitimate targets". "The ship doesn't necessarily have to be heading to Israel for us to target it," said its spokesperson.

The UK has already set a not-so-smart precedent in making its flagged vessels targets by Pavlovianly following the US' lead. The EU is wise to avoid doing the same.

The EU already has an independent maritime security operation, the Spain-led Atalanta mission in the northwestern Indian Ocean, which was launched in response to piracy off the Somali coast. By not joining US-led military operations in the Red Sea, the EU would also reinforce the possibility of easing the tensions in the Red Sea, which are a spillover effect of the Gaza conflict, via peaceful, political means. The key solution to the problem in the Red Sea lies in ending that conflict.

While the importance of the Red Sea as a global goods and energy trade passage is beyond question, and the need to protect commercial shipping is imperative, the US' use of force is only aggravating the risks and does not address the root cause, which is its refusal to restrain Israel's military operations in Gaza.

The EU is showing good judgement in not wanting to be party to the US' murky, and clearly self-serving agenda in the region. It's time for reason to prevail and the US' unconscionable actions not to be supported, so that concerted efforts can be made to end the conflict in Gaza. That is the best way to extinguish the fire in the Red Sea.