Strait of Malacca

Background and evolution

For more than two thousand years the strait has been the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean world and East Asia, and whoever controlled it controlled trade. Srivijaya, a maritime empire based on Sumatra, dominated it for centuries, and the Chola king Rajendra I launched a naval expedition against Srivijaya around 1025, one of the few overseas campaigns in early Indian history. The port of Malacca rose in the fifteenth century as a trading sultanate.

European powers then fought over it. The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511 under Afonso de Albuquerque, the Dutch took it in 1641, and the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 placed the Malay side under British influence, while Singapore, founded as a British trading post in 1819, became the great port at the southern end. After decolonisation the strait became the responsibility of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with Thailand near the northern approach.

Key features and provisions

• Geography: the strait narrows from north-west to south-east and joins the even narrower Singapore Strait. Its shallow depth limits the size of the largest tankers, which may have to use the deeper Lombok Strait instead.
• Chokepoint: a large share of the oil and goods traded between the Gulf, Europe and East Asia passes through it. Any blockage would force a long detour through the Sunda or Lombok straits.
• Security: piracy and armed robbery were serious problems in the early 2000s; the littoral states responded with coordinated Malacca Strait Patrols, and incidents declined.
• The Malacca dilemma: a phrase associated with Chinese leaders in the early 2000s, describing China's vulnerability to a blockade of the strait. It helps explain China's interest in pipelines through Myanmar and Pakistan and in ports in the Indian Ocean.
• Alternatives: the Sunda and Lombok straits in Indonesia, overland pipelines, and the long-discussed idea of a canal across Thailand's Kra Isthmus.