On a clear morning in Geneva, negotiators from more than a dozen countries gathered around a table whose implications stretched far beyond the Swiss Alps. The agenda was deceptively simple: securing the right of all nations to pass freely and safely through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply flows each day. That a formal agreement was even being drafted marked a significant shift in the diplomatic temperature surrounding one of the planet's most contested maritime corridors. Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares made the stakes plain.

"Free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz is essential," he said, framing the accord not merely as a regional concern but as a matter of global economic security. Madrid's active support for the deal signals a broader European willingness to engage with a crisis that has for years been treated, somewhat misleadingly, as a purely American or Gulf preoccupation. Disruptions to traffic through Hormuz send shockwaves through energy markets from Tokyo to Lisbon, a reality that Spain — heavily dependent on imported hydrocarbons — understands acutely. Washington's engagement carries its own weight.

Vice President J.D.