Protecting SE Asian SLOCs

Indonesia’s Minister of Defense has called for maritime security assistance from Japan, China and Korea. This is big news for two audiences: the World and Japan.

First, the Malacca Strait is an extremely important sea line of communication (SLOC, some semi-related background here) handling 40 percent of the world’s maritime trade. It is also one of the EIA’s world oil transit chokepoints. Unfortunately, it has a big piracy problem. Until recently, of the three main countries involved in the Strait’s security (Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia) only Singapore wanted international support for defense. Malaysia flipped last March and now with Indonesia jumping on the bandwagon we could see some movement to a more international presence in the Strait, and hopefully less risk to the world economy at large.

Secondly, Japan imports 99% of its petroleum and 70% of its food by sea, mostly through the Strait of Malacca. 86% of Japan’s oil comes from the Middle East, and the rest basically from Indonesia. Obviously SLOC security is a big pillar of Japan’s overall security agenda. Tokyo has proposed sending some ships and planes down south to patrol, but memories of the last time Japanese naval vessels were in the area have kept most southeast Asian countries from accepting the offer. Singapore was the only country to present a welcoming hand. Japan has been able to contribute some Coast Guard support, but now with Indonesia’s minister of defense calling for help on the Asia Big Three, Japan could find itself having a direct say in protecting an economic lifeline from afar.

An extra punch, and this one is for Tom, this type of activity could bring the goal of an “Asian NATO” one step closer.