In pushback against Rahul Gandhi’s opposition to the project, retired Air Chief Marshal says ecological concerns will be mitigated; notes that proposed port is 150 km from Malacca Strait, the route for 75% of China’s energy trade
Indonesia’s top diplomat said the country will not pursue tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Malacca, seeking to calm concerns after its finance minister raised the idea this week. “As a trading nation, Indonesia supports freedom of navigation and expects open sea lanes,” Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Thursday in Jakarta. “So Indonesia is not in a position to impose such charges – that would not be appropriate.” Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa on Wednesday questioned whether...
Indonesia says it is not choosing sides. That is true in diplomacy. It is less true on the map. The “major defence cooperation partnership” announced by Washington and Jakarta on April 13 is written in the safe language of official communiques: capacity building, education, exercises, cooperation. But the harder meaning lies beneath the phrasing. The most important line in this new defence partnership is not the reassuring one about “peace and stability”. It is the one about “maritime,...
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has warned of “a chain-reaction response” in more critical shipping lanes, including in the Malacca Strait in Southeast Asia, after Iran declared another full closure of the Hormuz Strait before a fragile ceasefire is due. “The era of imposing security from across the oceans has come to an end. Today, not only has the security of Hormuz and Malacca been guaranteed under the shadow of our power and that of our strategic partners, but the...