Al Jazeera correspondents
Published On 5/7/2026
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Last update: 13:16 (Mecca time)
kuala lumpur- Hundreds of small boats stand on the Malaysian shore of the Strait of Malacca, waiting to provide the huge ships with the supplies, maintenance, and mechanics they need. This is a small part of the economic activity that the Strait provides to the people on its Malaysian and Indonesian banks, in addition to Singapore and Thailand, which stand at its southern and northern gates.
The Malaysian Member of Parliament for the state of Malacca, Mohamed Bakri Jamaluddin, told Al Jazeera Net that many small and strategic ports constitute a tributary to global trade lines, including the main ports of Klang and Petang, and the ports of Petronas, Kuala Linggi, and Tangun Proas, through which between a quarter and a third of the world’s trade passes. As for China, it is more vital, as 80% of its oil and gas imports pass through it.
The strait connects the Indian and Pacific oceans, and connects East Asia to Europe, passing through the Middle East. Its length is about 900 kilometers, and its narrowest width does not exceed 2.8 kilometers. It is classified as the longest and most crowded strait, and is witnessing a steady increase in the number of ships passing through it. The Malaysian Maritime Department recorded that more than 104,000 ships crossed the Strait of Malacca in 2025, compared to 94,000 ships in the previous year.
The colonists early realized the strategic importance of the Strait of Malacca, so the Portuguese took control of it in 1511, overthrowing the Sultanate that ruled the Malay Peninsula, and colonialism in the Strait area continued for about 4 and a half centuries.
The conflict over the Strait of Hormuz has raised concerns about foreign military intervention again in the Strait of Malacca due to its strategic importance, and these concerns increase with the possibility of the outbreak of tension or war in the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Repercussions of the closure of Hormuz
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz in West Asia was reminiscent of what Chinese experts called the “Malacca Dilemma,” which means the fear of closing the Strait and causing disruption to energy supplies and trade lines.
Political analyst Rafiq Mohieddin told Al Jazeera Net that the repercussions of closing the Strait of Hormuz go beyond the rise in fuel prices and the high cost of living to the fear of strategic and security implications that threaten sovereignty, including the possibility of foreign military intervention under the pretext of protecting it, which could cause a geopolitical crisis in the Southeast Asian region.
This fact prompted, according to Muhyiddin’s assessment, the countries overlooking the Strait of Malacca to announce the conduct of joint and individual patrols and air surveillance to secure the strait from acts of piracy and smuggling, especially oil, in order to avoid international sanctions.
He points out that major countries such as the United States and China attach great importance to the Strait, and hence the importance of the four countries’ cooperation to maintain their sovereignty and security over the Strait increases.
Mohieddin points out the cooperation of the countries overlooking the strait in the field of information exchange and respect for sovereignty, and this means, in his opinion, that each country is responsible for the security of its own regions, and cooperates on the ground in preventing any foreign military intervention, without the existence of an agreement, but rather a practical understanding practiced on the ground.
Transit fees
But security costs require imposing transit fees on ships, as suggested by both Singapore and Indonesia, which Malaysia opposed as it violates the principle of freedom of navigation and forces ships to search for alternative routes.
Bakri Mohieddin pointed out that imposing fees on ships may cause shipping companies to search for other shipping routes, such as searching for routes from the Indian Ocean through the Sunda Strait and the Silawasi Strait, then to the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Muhyiddin pointed out that imposing transit fees causes an increase in the cost of transportation, and those affected by this will not be Japan and China alone, but Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore as well.
Difficult alternatives
All alternatives to the Strait of Malacca appear to be either very expensive or unavailable, which is a guarantee that it will not lose its strategic importance in the near future, as sea lines between the Indonesian islands increase costs and time.
- Thailand has proposed establishing a land bridge project linking the Andaman Sea on the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea, but experts doubt that the bridge – which is 90 kilometers long at a cost of more than $40 billion – will solve the problem of costs and time.
- Malaysia launched the East Coast Railway project 10 years ago, which has not yet been completed, with the aim of finding an alternative to the strait across its territory linking the two banks of the Malay Peninsula, so that ships unload their cargo in the Klang Port on the west coast and are transported via trains to the Port of Kelantan on the South China Sea.
- China launched Years ago the economic corridor crossed Pakistan Arriving at Gwadar Port Arabian SeaHowever, the corridor that provides a safe route for its exports will not help it import oil and gas from the Middle East.
Therefore, the dilemma remains, and the solution is in the opinion of many observers in the Southeast ASEAN It lies in sparing the Strait of tensions, crises, and militarization.
