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With the downing of a U.S. drone, the deployment of U.S. forces to the Middle East, and new sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, tensions have escalated since the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month.

The incident, which coincided with a historic visit from Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Iran, has once again unnerved countries in the Indo-Pacific that are highly dependent on the Gulf for their energy supply. Every day around one-third of the world’s crude oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important passage that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Ensuring open sea lines of communication and the freedom of navigation of vessels — both commercial and naval — is especially critical for states in the Indo-Pacific region. Disruption of this vital supply line would wreak havoc on many major Asian economies.

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Every day around one-third of the world’s crude oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz

Many of Canada’s key trading partners in the region, such as China, Japan and South Korea, import most of their crude oil from the Middle East, much of it traversing through Hormuz. Japan, for example, imports more than 80 per cent of its crude oil and 25 per cent of its liquified natural gas from countries in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Magnifying Tokyo’s exposure is a lack of indigenous energy resources and largely idle nuclear energy program — sidelined since the devastating nuclear crisis in Fukushima in 2011. Other large economies such as South Korea and Taiwan also depend on this fragile energy supply.