Piracy is also very active in the Strait of Malacca.

(c) in seeking attainment of the above objectives, the Organization and the Secretary General should seek to promote the Marine Electronic Highway project specifically designed for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

In the context of strengthening the safety of navigation and maritime security in the area, we further commend the assistance of the IMO in facilitating the Marine Electronic Highway project for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

So it is little wonder that it is in these places that most illegal immigration and human trafficking occurs pirates in the Straits of Malacca, fast boats between Albania and Italy, and desperate human cargoes from Africa and Latin America.

One delegation provided information about various initiatives to improve safety and security of navigation and environmental protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, including an IMO sponsored meeting to be held in Jakarta in 2005, and the marine electronic highway project.

The overland silk road, for example, will reduce China s reliance on sea lanes, which can be blocked or disrupted, especially at the Strait of Malacca. More generally, Chinese investment will ease the constraints on the silk road economies caused partly by slow growth and investment shortfalls in advanced economies.

Of course, China claims that its intentions toward India are peaceful. For example, it contends that its efforts to establish bases in the Indian Ocean and bolster its blue water navy are aimed at safeguarding the Malacca Straits, a maritime trade route that is perceived as a choke point for the Chinese economy.

Also vital to the new strategy are two prospective modern day Silk Roads an overland route through Central Asia to the Black Sea and a Maritime Silk Road by which shipping will pass from the South China Sea, through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean to East Africa, and from there through the Red Sea into the eastern Mediterranean.

Because China must import vast quantities of oil through the Malacca Strait, that sea lane has become a central element in the country s security strategy. For this reason, China is attempting to use economic and military aid as leverage to improve relations even with countries with which it has had military confrontations with in the past, most prominently Vietnam and the Philippines.