Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Indonesia floats a Malacca toll, Duterte stands trial over crimes against humanity, China’s foreign minister visits three countries, and Russian oil continues to flow.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Indonesia floats a Malacca toll, Duterte stands trial over crimes against humanity, China’s foreign minister visits three countries, and Russian oil continues to flow.

Why Did Indonesia Float a Malacca Toll?

An apparently off-the-cuff observation by Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa sparked a flurry of consternation across the region this week.

“We sit along a key global trade and energy route, yet ships passing through the Malacca Strait are not charged,” the minister said on April 22. “I don’t know if that’s right or wrong.” Purbaya went on to suggest that the toll could be split with Malaysia and Singapore, which also border the strait.

Earlier this month, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had made his own puckish observations about the Strait of Malacca. “Are we aware that 70 percent of East Asia’s energy needs and 70 percent of trade pass through Indonesian seas?” Prabowo mused in a televised speech on April 8.

Admittedly, Indonesian ministers have a latitude to independently float policies not endorsed by the government to a degree that is unthinkable in many other countries. And Purbaya is known to have an outspoken temperament. But Purbaya is also seen as Prabowo’s man at the Finance Ministry. Some detect a whiff of a minister currying favor by floating ideas the presidential palace might like to hear—even if just as a provocation.

Malaysia and Singapore both stated their opposition to Purbaya’s suggestion. Within 24 hours, Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono disavowed the comment. Purbaya later said that he was joking. And for numerous reasons, this proposal is unlikely to ever happen.

But the fact it was floated at all is telling, for two reasons.

First, with the crisis over the Strait of Hormuz—yet another herald of the crumbling of the post-World War II order—international actors are considering how it might be revised to their advantage.

Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago gives it control of numerous strategic straits—not just Malacca, but also Sunda and Makassar. And as the Economist has pointed out, Indonesia has flirted with similar ideas before. In the early 2000s, when piracy became an issue in the straits, Indonesia suggested that ships might pay to be escorted through. At the time, Malaysia and Singapore teamed up to squash the idea.

Second,  Purbaya’s comments speak to Indonesia’s deteriorating fiscal situation—which bodes ill for the region.

It seems not coincidental that the idea was floated by........

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