Strait of Malacca

The Strait of Malacca lies between Sumatra to the west and the Malay Peninsula, including parts of Malaysia and southern Thailand, to the east. It connects the Andaman Sea at its northwestern end with the South China Sea toward the southeast; Singapore lies near its southern approach, where the route continues through the Strait of Singapore. The strait is about 800 kilometres long and has a funnel-like shape: it narrows to roughly 65 kilometres in the south and widens to about 250 kilometres farther northwest. It is a natural passage between the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific maritime region.

The waterway provides one of the shortest sea routes between India and China and is a major link for shipping between the Indian Ocean and East Asian ports. Its position makes it strategically important to regional and international trade. Navigation is not uniform along its length: Britannica describes the southern part as shallow, with numerous islets, reefs and sand ridges around the southern entrance. These features, together with heavy vessel traffic, make careful passage planning and navigational aids important. The strait is not a canal; it is a naturally formed sea passage.

The strait takes its name from the port of Melaka, whose position on the Malay coast helped it become an important trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries. The maritime route also formed part of wider networks of movement and exchange across the Malay Archipelago. Control of the passage changed over time, including periods of Arab, Portuguese, Dutch and British influence. In modern shipping, it remains a key route linking major Asian trading regions; Singapore, one of the world's major ports, is located at its southern end.

The strait is used for international navigation, so safety and pollution prevention require cooperation among the states bordering it and the wider community of ship users. The International Maritime Organization describes a Cooperative Mechanism for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, launched in 2007. It brings together Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore with user states and other stakeholders to share information, coordinate projects and promote navigational safety and environmental protection. This work is consistent with Article 43 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which calls for strait-bordering and user states to cooperate on navigational aids and on preventing, reducing and controlling pollution from ships.