Singapore says no negotiations for Hormuz safe passage; transit is ‘right, not privilege’

Singapore will not negotiate for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as doing so would undermine fundamental principles of international law, Foreign Affairs Minister…

Singapore will not negotiate for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as doing so would undermine fundamental principles of international law, Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said.

Responding to a parliamentary question on Tuesday by Member of Parliament Fadli Fawzi on whether Singapore would engage Iran or consider paying a toll for its vessels, Balakrishnan stressed that transit through such waterways was a right – not a privilege.

“There is a right of transit passage,” he said. “It is not a privilege to be granted by the bordering state, it’s not a licence to be supplicated for, it is not a toll to be paid.”

He emphasised that the Strait of Hormuz, like the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Singapore, was a waterway used for international navigation. This right is codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), to which Singapore is a signatory.

Singapore’s foreign affairs minister Vivian Balakrishnan speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27, 2025. Photo: EPA

Balakrishnan added that the principle applied even to states that had not ratified Unclos, saying that it is not a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for them.

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