Suez Canal

“Salvage teams on Monday finally freed the colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. A flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, wrenched the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23.” (AP News)

Many on both sides worry about the risks from trade chokepoints and ever larger ships:

“The flow of goods by sea accounts for 70% of total international trade, and the chokepoints in that network have inspired both international conflict and commerce for millennia… For China, this is a unique vulnerability. Unlike the U.S., which is a net exporter of crude these days, China imports nearly three-quarters of the oil it consumes, as well as about four-fifths of the iron ore it uses to fuel its frantic pace of infrastructure buildout — not to mention most of the goods exports it uses to obtain hard currency to pay for these commodities…

“Much of China’s foreign policy over the past decade makes more sense as a way of overcoming those vulnerabilities. Chinese companies hold stakes of close to 65% in the world’s busiest ports, according to Gavekal Dragonomics. An infrastructure corridor through Pakistan, petroleum pipelines through Myanmar, and intermodal rail route across the Malay peninsula — all key elements of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative — serve to reduce China’s dependence on the straits of Malacca and Singapore. Asserting claims in the South China Sea, similarly, makes it harder for Southeast Asian neighbors and the U.S. to threaten trade.” (David Fickling and Anjani Trivedi, Bloomberg)

“In addition to the Suez Canal, there are three international straits and one other canal that represent the major maritime choke points. These are the Strait of Malacca that separates the Pacific and Indian Oceans; the Bosporus Strait that separates the Aegean and Black Sea; the Strait of Bab-El-Mandeb at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula; and the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf. The other canal, of course, is the Panama Canal… “In all of these locations we should put significant focus on creating international authorities who manage them with an appreciation for their international character (the Suez and Panama canals both have well run authorities); conduct frequent drills and exercises to practice for disasters like the one that has just occurred in the Suez canal; have internationally funded resources to make sure they can remain open in crisis (as was done on an ad hoc basis in Suez); and have an international regime with regulatory powers inspect all of them frequently.” (James Stavridis, Time)