Editing Indian Ocean (section)

===Trade===
{{Main|Indian Ocean trade}}
[[File:Shipping routes.png|thumb|Major [[Maritime transport|ocean trade routes]] in the world include the northern Indian Ocean.]]
The sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are considered among the most strategically important in the world with more than 80 percent of the world's seaborne trade in oil transits through the Indian Ocean and its vital chokepoints, with 40 percent passing through the Strait of Hormuz, 35 percent through the Strait of Malacca and 8 percent through the Bab el-Mandab Strait.<ref name="TheDiplomatDeSilva2011">{{Cite news|url=https://thediplomat.com/2011/03/why-the-indian-ocean-matters/|title=Why the Indian Ocean Matters|last=DeSilva-Ranasinghe|first=Sergei|work=The Diplomat|date=2 March 2011}}</ref>
<!-- [[File:Lamu dhow 5.JPG|thumb|A [[dhow]] off the coast of Kenya]] -->

The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and Western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.<ref name="CIAWFB-2018" /> Beach sands rich in heavy minerals, and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, Pakistan, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
[[File:A general view of Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.jpg|thumb|[[Mombasa]] Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast]]
In particular, the maritime part of the [[Silk Road]] leads through the Indian Ocean on which a large part of the global container trade is carried out. The Silk Road runs with its connections from the Chinese coast and its large container ports to the south via [[Hanoi]] to [[Jakarta]], [[Singapore]] and [[Kuala Lumpur]] through the [[Strait of Malacca]] via the Sri Lankan [[Colombo]] opposite the southern tip of India via [[Malé]], the capital of the Maldives, to the East African [[Mombasa]], from there to [[Djibouti]], then through the Red Sea over the [[Suez Canal]] into the Mediterranean, there via [[Haifa]], [[Istanbul]] and [[Athens]] to the Upper Adriatic to the northern Italian junction of [[Trieste]] with its international free port and its rail connections to [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe.<ref>Bernhard Simon: Can The New Silk Road Compete with the Maritime Silk Road? in The Maritime Executive, 1 January 2020.</ref><ref>Marcus Hernig: Die Renaissance der Seidenstraße (2018), pp 112.</ref><ref>Wolf D. Hartmann, Wolfgang Maennig, Run Wang: Chinas neue Seidenstraße. (2017), pp 59.</ref><ref>Matteo Bressan: Opportunities and challenges for BRI in Europe in Global Time, 2 April 2019.</ref>

The Silk Road has become internationally important again on the one hand through European integration, the end of the Cold War and free world trade and on the other hand through Chinese initiatives. Chinese companies have made investments in several Indian Ocean ports, including [[Gwadar]], [[Hambantota]], [[Colombo]] and [[Sonadia]]. This has sparked a debate about the strategic implications of these investments.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brewster|2014a}}</ref> There are also Chinese investments and related efforts to intensify trade in East Africa and in European ports such as [[Piraeus]] and [[Trieste]].<ref>Harry G. Broadman "Afrika's Silk Road" (2007), pp 59.</ref><ref>Andreas Eckert: Mit Mao nach Daressalam, In: Die Zeit 28. March 2019, p 17.</ref><ref>Guido Santevecchi: Di Maio e la Via della Seta: «Faremo i conti nel 2020», siglato accordo su Trieste in Corriere della Sera, 5 November 2019.</ref>