Indonesia and Singapore vow the Malacca oil route stays open

President Prabowo Subianto and Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong have promised that the Strait of Malacca, the narrow sea lane between the two countries, will stay "accessible." The South China Morning Post reports the pledge came at their leaders' meeting, aimed at calming nerves after the Middle East crisis pushed oil prices up and made every shipping route feel less safe.

The strait matters far beyond the region. In early 2025 it carried more than 23 million barrels of oil a day, about 29 percent of all oil moved by sea, which makes it the world's busiest oil chokepoint, a narrow passage that a large share of global trade must squeeze through. It is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The trigger for worry was Iran, which started charging ships to use the Strait of Hormuz near the Gulf, raising the fear that other countries might copy the idea and turn key sea lanes into toll gates.

Indonesia had flirted with exactly that. In April, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa floated charging vessels to cross the strait, then dropped the plan. By promising open access instead, Jakarta and Singapore are signalling they will not add costs to a route the world depends on, at a moment when higher shipping bills would land straight on fuel and food prices.

Why it matters

Indonesia lives or dies by trade that moves through this water, so keeping it cheap and open protects the price you pay at the pump and in the market. The bigger question is whether the promise holds if the government's budget gets tighter and a toll starts to look tempting again. Watch that April fee idea: if it returns, importers will pass the cost straight to shoppers.