Some 90% of world trade is handled by sea freight. More than half of it is shipped from Asian ports. One of the busiest routes runs via Japan, South Korea and China through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, past Singapore into the Indian Ocean.
The Indian Ocean is then the hub for trade routes south to the east coast of Africa and north to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. To the west, ships sail through the Bab-el-Mandeb into the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal to Europe. With few exceptions, all maritime traffic between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa with East Asia and even the East Coast of the United States passes through the Strait of Malacca.
As a result, the Indian Ocean and its access routes are of utmost strategic importance to the world economy. The Strait of Hormuz, for example, is the route through which most of the crude oil that China needs is transported.
In 2021, we saw the costly consequences of a blockage of one of these access routes when the container ship Ever Given clogged the Suez Canal for six days, disrupting global trade for many months.
The global community has a vital common interest in keeping these routes open and safe.
