Malacca Strait

The Strait of Malacca, between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, is the principal sea lane between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and a chokepoint for around a quarter of traded goods and most East Asian oil imports. It narrows to about 1.5 nautical miles of navigable channel at the Phillips Channel near Singapore, creating congestion and a long history of armed robbery and hijacking. The littoral states run the trilateral Malacca Strait Patrols to suppress sea robbery.