evidence: - Association for Asian Studies - When the World Came to Southeast Asia: Malacca and the Global Economy - CORE - The Economic Importance of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore: An Extreme Scenario Analysis - BBC Future - Malacca Strait: How one volcano could trigger world chaos - Universidad de Navarra - Global Affairs - China and India fight for the gates of the Strait of Malacca Strait of Malacca, waterway connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean). It runs between the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the west and peninsular (West) Malaysia and extreme southern Thailand to the east and has an area of about 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km). The strait is 500 miles (800 km) long and is funnel-shaped, with a width of only 40 miles (65 km) in the south that broadens northward to some 155 miles (250 km) between We Island off Sumatra and the Isthmus of Kra on the mainland. The strait derived its name from the trading port of Melaka (formerly Malacca)—which was of importance in the 16th and 17th centuries—on the Malay coast.