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Indonesia and Malaysia are both BRICS+ members, and Singapore is pretty pro-China. Trump said he was talking to countries about inspecting Iranian ships passing through the Malacca Straits, and I'm guessing he meant Singapore, and probably got the thumbs down.

You are right about China keeping options open - the BRI initiative is about improving land transport options in Eurasia.

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India however is allied militarily with the US and can control what ships transit the strait from its bases in the Sentinel Islands.

Also, the US Navy can project a lot of power into the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.

Beijing's being worried about an interruption of it supply of oil would explain why they continue to build coal generating plants at a fast rate in addition to solar plants. (China has plenty of coal.)

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