Iran’s decision to charge fees for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz—and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tentative endorsement of that idea—are reverberating in a different waterway around 4,000 miles away.
On April 22, Indonesia’s finance minister, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, suggested the Southeast Asian country might start imposing levies on ships transiting the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea. The strait is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, carrying around 30% of global trade. Two hundred ships travel through Malacca each day, double the number that pass through Hormuz.
