The Trump administration now has a $20 billion answer to part of the shipping crisis in the Gulf. The answer is money.

CNBC reported on March 6 that Washington launched a major reinsurance program aimed at getting oil tankers and other maritime traffic moving again through Hormuz. [1] That is a serious state intervention. It is also, by itself, not enough.

The same reporting contains the core problem in plain language. Insurance is not the main issue if shipowners still believe the physical security environment is unacceptable. [1]

That distinction matters. Governments can absorb or spread financial risk. They can create guarantees, backstops, indemnities, and headlines about confidence. They cannot, by administrative will alone, make a narrow war-zone waterway feel safe enough for commercial actors to behave as though it is ordinary again.

So the backstop is real. It is just not the same thing as restoration.

-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow