Introduction
The Red Sea, which connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans to the Mediterranean Sea, and thus Asia and Africa to Europe, is a strategic body of water through which commercial shipping must have free passage. Lapping at the shores of eight countries and with chokepoints at both ends – the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal – the Red Sea is both vital to world trade and vulnerable to being blocked. Any threat to navigation there can set off a wide-ranging economic shock. Even minor disruptions, such as when the mammoth container ship, the MV Ever Given, got stuck in the Canal for six days in March 2021, can have repercussions felt around the globe.1
At its southern end, the Red Sea opens into the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean through the Bab al-Mandab. Some 7 per cent of global maritime trade, carried by over 25,000 ships and valued at $700 billion each year, passes through this strait.2 Its proximity to the Gulf also makes the Bab al-Mandab the main sea route from major Middle East oil and gas fields to the West, with 6.2 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products in transit every day.3 Europe receives about 60 per cent of its energy needs through the Bab al-Mandab. The U.S. gets a lesser but still important share of its oil through the strait, about 10 per cent (down from 20 per cent five years ago, reflecting the decline in U.S. dependence on Middle East oil for domestic use).
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