{"id":16856,"date":"2026-05-16T16:19:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/as-hormuz-crisis-rattles-the-world-eyes-are-on-another-key-waterway-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:19:57","slug":"as-hormuz-crisis-rattles-the-world-eyes-are-on-another-key-waterway-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/as-hormuz-crisis-rattles-the-world-eyes-are-on-another-key-waterway-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"As Hormuz crisis rattles the world, eyes are on another key waterway – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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HONG KONG \u2014 As the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz <\/a>drags on, guardians of another critical waterway are worried about the precedent it sets for any future clash between the United States and China. <\/a>
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\u201cIf they go to war in the Pacific, what you are witnessing now in the Strait of Hormuz is just a dry run,\u201d Singaporean Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said last month.
Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia all flank the Strait of Malacca \u2014 a waterway roughly five times longer and 10 times narrower than the Strait of Hormuz at its tightest point. It carries more than a quarter of global trade, including most of the oil that flows from the Persian Gulf to key Asian markets.
Goods from China are heavily reliant on the strait, which links the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean via the South China Sea, but it also serves as the primary energy lifeline for U.S. allies such as South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, making control of the waterway crucial in any future U.S.-China conflict.
For decades, the U.S. has maintained a strong naval presence across the region, with the U.S. Navy\u2019s 7th Fleet having played an active role during several wars in Asia, including in Korea and Vietnam. Its constant presence has long irked leaders in China, whose own navy has undergone rapid modernization <\/a>and is now the largest in the world.
With the two global superpowers in proximity to the strait, the question is whether a Hormuz-style showdown could one day happen here too.
\u201cIf I was the admiral, I would shut down Malacca,\u201d said Sean Andrews, a retired Australian naval captain, referring to a hypothetical future U.S. conflict with China. \u201cIn any potential crisis, Malacca will be a gatekeeping operation of sorts.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCertain ships would be allowed to go through, and certain ships wouldn\u2019t be allowed to go through,\u201d he said.
Any disruption to the strait would force vessels on costly dayslong detours. Ships would have to reroute further south, through the Lombok Strait, around the Java Sea near Jakarta, or bypass the Indonesian archipelago entirely. \u201cIt\u2019s the quickest way through a geographical obstacle like Southeast Asia,\u201d Andrews said.
However, potential disruption may not be as critical as the Hormuz crisis, which has left many Gulf states with effectively no route to the wider ocean. There are alternative routes for vessels if Malacca is blocked, meaning a closure could prove more of an inconvenience than an absolute barrier to trade.
Wary of any geostrategic vulnerability, China has spent decades seeking a solution to what former Chinese President Hu Jintao dubbed the \u201cMalacca dilemma,\u201d seeking to reduce its dependence on crude oil imports coming through the strait.
\u201cThe control over waterways has fundamentally changed\u201d following the Hormuz crisis, said Christian Bueger, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and the author of \u201cUnderstanding Maritime Security.\u201d
\u201cFreedom of navigation cannot be ensured anymore with big gunboats.\u201d
The three countries flanking the strait have long had pragmatic relationships with both the U.S. and China, and have previously been aligned on the need for free trade to flow, though the Hormuz crisis has seen tensions erupt.
Inspired by Iran, Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa briefly floated imposing a \u201ctoll booth\u201d charge last month, though his government has since walked back the suggestion.
\u201cWe do not have tolls. All of us are trade-dependent economies,\u201d Balakrishnan, the Singaporean minister, reiterated at a CNBC event in Singapore last month, while Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan stressed a \u201cwatertight understanding\u201d that there could be no changes in the Strait of Malacca without involvement of all neighboring countries.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth \u2060last month announced a defense cooperation partnership with Indonesia, with a joint statement emphasizing a \u201ccommitment to cooperation based on mutual respect, sovereignty, and shared interest in regional peace and stability.\u201d
Unlike the Strait of Hormuz, which lacks any formal arrangement among its surrounding countries for its management, the Strait of Malacca is governed by a series of agreements between Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. These cover everything from coordinated maritime patrols and aerial surveillance to shared intelligence and environmental protection.
\u201cSingapore is kind of a coordinator in this,\u201d said Barbora Valockova, a research fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore.
The city-state was trying to make others in the region understand that \u201cmaybe the lesson from Hormuz is that it shows that we should even redouble our efforts to keep Malacca open, predictable and insulated as far as possible from wider geopolitical confrontation,\u201d she added.
\u201cWith respect to both America and China, we have told both of them, we operate on the basis of UNCLOS,\u201d Balakrishnan said, referring to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
\u201cThe right of transit passage is guaranteed for everyone. We will not participate in any attempts to close or interdict or to impose tolls in our neighborhood.\u201d
Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter\/producer for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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