The European Union says it plans to expand its naval operations in the Red Sea and western Indian Ocean, Al Jazeera reports.

“Under an updated mandate, vessels and aircraft deployed in two of the bloc’s maritime missions will be authorised to collect information on suspicious activities linked to critical undersea infrastructure,” the member states have said in a statement. “The expansion will also include training activities for the naval forces of Djibouti and cooperation with the Yemeni coast guard.”

The measures fall under the EU’s missions Aspides, which “aims to protect commercial shipping, particularly from attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia”, and Atalanta, which was established in 2008 to “combat piracy in the region”.

The EU said the expanded naval operations are “not linked to calls by US President Donald Trump for European allies to help safeguard oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz”.

The EU officials say the move is instead “partly aimed at improving monitoring of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, used to circumvent a price cap on its oil exports imposed by Western supporters of Ukraine”.

They suspect the fleet is also being used “in sabotage activities targeting underwater infrastructure”.