Thailand said it will accelerate a long-aspired landbridge project linking new ports on the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand across its Isthmus of Kra in the south of the country, arguing that the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has underscored the value of controlling alternative transport routes, Bloomberg reported on April 20. Officials said the government is seeking private sector partners through a bidding process and that companies have expressed interest, though no binding investment commitments have been announced.

Bangkok is attempting to seize on the broader pattern of supply chain anxiety created by repeated shocks at major chokepoints, including the Red Sea, the Panama Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic logic is sound: the Strait of Malacca remains the world's largest oil transit chokepoint, making an alternative route highly valuable. However, Bangkok has pursued some version of this project for roughly two decades with almost nothing to show for it.