Transport minister Loke Siew Fook, who attended the closed-door discussion, said the session was held in conjunction with Singapore Maritime Week (SMW) 2026, Bernama reported.

“Malaysia, as a littoral state with responsibilities over the Straits of Malacca, remains committed to ensuring both freedom of navigation and freedom of transit in the strait,” he said after the opening ceremony of SMW 2026 at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore.

“As a sovereign nation and a member of the International Maritime Organization council, we are committed to a rules-based system in which every member state plays its role and respects international law.”

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have renewed attention on the Straits of Malacca, another of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Though just 2.7km at its tightest point and ten times narrower than the Hormuz, this strait carries roughly 40% of global trade, including the majority of oil from the Middle East to Asian economic centres like China, Japan, and South Korea.

Bloomberg quoted Yap Chuin Wei, director of the Hinrich Foundation’s international trade research programme, as saying that the crisis in Hormuz highlighted growing concerns that maritime chokepoints could increasingly be “weaponised” amid global geopolitical rivalries.