More than four-fifths of crude oil bound for China crosses the Indian Ocean before passing through the narrow Malacca Strait.
Last autumn, the Japanese-owned Tenyu sailed out of the Malacca Strait bound for South Korea with 1, 500 tonnes of aluminium ingots.
As China emerges as a trading giant (one increasingly dependent on imported oil), a few of its military analysts talk about the need to protect distant sea lanes in the Malacca Strait and beyond.
The island city-state sits at the mouth of the strategically vital Strait of Malacca.
Of the 74, 000 vessels, carrying one-third of global seaborne trade, that passed through the Strait of Malacca last year, most also plied the South China Sea.
ECONOMIST: The South China Sea becomes a zone of eternal dispute
As you know, if you range back about seven or eight years, we had a significant piracy problem that was manifesting itself in the Strait of Malacca.
WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing with Ben Rhodes and Admiral Robert Willard
The NSR cuts the voyage from Shanghai to Hamburg by 6, 400km (4, 000 miles) compared with the southern journey through the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal.
And it was the nations of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand that came together and began to patrol in earnest the Strait of Malacca and quelled piracy quite a bit.
WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing with Ben Rhodes and Admiral Robert Willard
For example, Murmansk to China's Ningbo port near Shanghai is 13, 000 km via the NSR, compared with 22, 000 km via the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean and Strait of Malacca.
Malaysian authorities revealed later that military radar had tracked the plane as it turned back to the west and flew across the Malaysian Peninsula, up the Strait of Malacca, before flying out of radar range at 2:14 a.m. and vanishing once again.
The Essex and Juneau were expected to depart the gulf later Thursday when they finished off-loading the helicopters, then steam around the Malay Peninsula through the Strait of Malacca and into the Andaman Sea to be in position closer to Myanmar.
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