All that was left to the Russians was to charter some of their own tankers on the run to Kuwait. British and French naval units, along with ships from Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, also entered the Gulf to help protect freedom of navigation. The Japanese, forbidden by their constitution from sending ships but highly dependent on oil from the Gulf, chipped in by increasing the funds that they provided to offset the cost of maintaining American forces in Japan and by investing in a precision locator system in the Strait of Hormuz. West Germany shifted some of its naval vessels from the
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