Ukraine can play useful role in Strait of Hormuz, Britain says

KYIV, Apr 11 (Reuters): Ukraine can play a useful role in international efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz, Britain's armed services minister said, praising its drone technology as among the best in the world.

Britain has organized discussions this month among more than 30 nations nL1N40L0A8 on how to reopen the strait, amid an Iranian blockade that has choked oil supplies to the global economy following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran https://www.reuters.com/world/iran/.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week Kyiv had participated in consultations on safeguarding navigation, drawing on expertise nL1N40L0WM from four years of war with Russia. Ukraine has already deployed more than 200 experts to the Middle East, where they have downed nL8N40S140 Iran's long-range Shahed drones.

"Ukraine has some of the best technology in the world that it's developed here in the war. I think that could provide utility in the Middle East, as we're seeing already against Shahed drones, all the way through to the Strait of Hormuz," Al Carns said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.

Carns, who served as a colonel in Britain's armed forces before being elected to parliament two years ago, said his visit was intended to reassure Kyiv that the war in Ukraine remained Britain's top defence and security priority.

He played down tensions within the NATO military alliance following U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of European allies for not joining the Iran war, saying NATO was still the "backbone of our security".