From Hormuz to Malacca: India’s stakes in global chokepoints

Against this backdrop, let’s understand maritime chokepoints, their geographical distribution, and India’s strategic position, as well as the steps Delhi has taken to address its vulnerabilities. 

Maritime chokepoints and their geographical distribution

A chokepoint is a narrow passage along a maritime trade route that is critical to ship movements. These chokepoints can be natural geographical features, such as straits or channels, or human-made waterways like the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. A strait is a narrow stretch of water connecting two larger bodies of water. 

These chokepoints provide the shortest or most efficient trade routes between major ports, regions, or countries. Therefore, they hold economic and geo-strategic significance. The Indian Ocean Region measures 9,600 km from the Bay of Bengal to the Antarctic and 7,800 km from South Africa to Western Australia.

The Strait of Malacca

The Strait of Malacca lies between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the busiest shipping routes, with nearly 30 per cent of the world’s traded goods and 80 per cent of the oil – exported from the Gulf to the major Asian economies like China, Japan, and South Korea – passing through it.

China calls it the ‘Malacca dilemma’ as about 80 per cent of its oil imports passes through this route. Experts note that only India and Malaysia have the practical maritime real estate around the Malacca Strait (as narrow as 1.5 nautical miles wide at the Phillip Channel). The mouth of the strait opens perilously close to the southern tip of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

The Strait of Malacca is also vital for India’s MAHASAGAR vision, which aims to promote an open, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Apart from competition for maritime dominance between China, India, the US, and others, the region is also tectonically active, with earthquakes, volcanic activities and tsunamis (like in 2004) remaining some of the major threats. 

The Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz lies between Oman and Iran, linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It is between 48 and 80 km wide (35–40 kilometres at its narrowest point), with only a few kilometres available for actual shipping lanes. 

This extremely narrow passage accounts for approximately a quarter of the world’s oil supply and liquefied natural gas from Gulf countries to global markets, including Asian countries like India, China, Japan, South Korea and others. Nearly 50 per cent of India’s crude oil imports and more than 50 per cent of LNG imports (critical for domestic cooking gas supplies) pass through the Strait of Hormuz. 

Additionally, the Gulf region is also a major supplier of fertilisers that directly affect global food production. India’s food security hinges heavily on fertiliser security, with over 60 per cent of urea imports, 80 per cent of ammonia and sulphur imports coming from the Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz is very critical because there are no viable alternatives for Gulf countries to export their oil, petroleum and fertilizer products. 

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait 

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Africa and West Asia connects the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden. The narrow maritime chokepoint is 32 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. Around 4 million barrels of oil and nearly 12 percent of global trade pass through it daily. Closure of this strait means ships must detour around Africa.  

The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal was built in 1869, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The 193-km artificial sea-level waterway is the shortest route between the Atlantic Ocean and lands around the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. The Suez Canal is a crucial shortcut for journeys between Asia and Europe, negating the need to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and thus cutting distances by up to 7,000 km.

The Suez Canal accounts for approximately 10 per cent of global maritime trade. Incidents like the six-day Suez Canal blockage in March 2021, or attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, led to rerouting, delays, increased insurance costs, spike in overall shipping costs, and significant logistical disruptions worldwide.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal connects two vast oceans i.e., Atlantic in the east and Pacific in the west shortening the maritime distance between New York and San Francisco by 13,000 km. The Canal has been built across the Panama Isthmus – a narrow strip of land connecting the continents of North and South America, and separating the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans – by the US. It is 72 km long and has a lock system to cross. 

Around 2.5 per cent of global maritime trade navigates through this canal and is particularly vital for the US and South American economies. However, this route is vulnerable to climate change and geopolitics. Drought-like conditions in 2023 and 2024 led to restrictions on vessel numbers and size that could pass through the canal. In early 2025, President Trump threatened to take control of it.

India’s stake in volatile West Asia

With its 11,098 km long coastal boundary, India is a major player in the Indian Ocean Region.  The region constitutes 20 per cent of the world’s water surface and 40 per cent of the world’s coastline. It is at the centre of global commerce, with nearly 100,000 ships transiting the ocean annually. India is one of the largest trading economies in the region. 

The ongoing Iran war has reiterated the critical significance of waterways for the free flow of global trade. In recent years, India has diversified its energy sources and improved its refining capacity. But it is still heavily dependent on energy imports, with dependency on imported crude oil growing to over 88.5 per cent in the first 10 months of the current financial year FY26. 

In the financial year 2024–25 (FY25), India imported approximately 243 million tonnes (Mt) of crude oil worth $137 billion, nearly half of which was sourced from West Asia via the Strait of Hormuz. The country also imports 90 per cent of its LPG from the region through the same channel. As the ongoing war escalated, supplies tightened, and import costs rose, affecting domestic LPG prices in India. 

Similarly, India is heavily dependent on imports for its fertilizer needs despite being self-reliant in production of many of the staple crops. During 2024-25, it imported about 75 per cent of urea from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and Saudi Arabia was its largest source of DAP (Diammonium Phosphate). 

India’s domestic fertilizer production utilizes nearly 29 per cent of its total natural gas consumption, half of which comes from import from GCC countries. The ongoing war, therefore, threatens India’s energy supplies, household fuel, and agricultural inputs.

How Delhi addresses maritime vulnerabilities

India has been addressing its vulnerabilities across multiple fronts. In the West, the proposed India-Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), announced in 2023, seeks to reduce its dependence on chokepoints along the Red Sea-Suez Canal route. 

However, the ongoing war and its effect on Indian industries and households underline the need for Delhi to have a multi-pronged approach, including further diversifying its energy supply; expanding domestic production capacity, complemented by a transition to renewable sources; increasing the capacity of strategic petroleum reserves (currently at 5.33 million metric tonnes) to absorb future external shocks.

Post read questions

In the context of the Iran war, analyse the significance of critical maritime chokepoints with reference to the Indian Ocean Region.

Examine the impact of supply chain disruptions in maritime chokepoints on India’s economy, with reference to energy and fertilizer imports.

Evaluate India’s strategic response to vulnerabilities arising from its dependence on critical maritime routes.

Discuss the role of strategic petroleum reserves in enhancing India’s energy security in the context of global uncertainties.

(Abhinav Rai is a Doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.)

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