Asia Society 10d ago

June 18, 2026 — With the United States and Iran having reached a 60-day memorandum of understanding aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway is set to begin reopening after nearly four months of disruption from the war that began in late February. For Asia, the stakes have been enormous: roughly 80 percent of the oil and 90 percent of the LNG transiting the Strait of Hormuz is bound for the region, and its closure rippled well beyond crude and gas, curtailing flows of jet fuel, fertilizer, naphtha, and helium, and putting stress on chip and medical supply chains. In response, Asian economies have reached for a range of emergency measures such as subsidies, fuel rationing, and reserve draws, while cooperation efforts have also emerged including bilateral energy swaps, Japan's $10 billion POWERR Asia framework, and new mechanisms to keep essential goods flowing. The crisis has also accelerated the region's pivot toward clean energy. Join the Asia Society Policy Institute for a virtual panel discussion with leading experts Tatsuya Terazawa, Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan; Matteo Lanzafame, Director of the Macroeconomics Research Division at the Asian Development Bank; Julia Puspadewi Tijaja, Non-Resident Fellow at CSIS Indonesia; and Jenny Gordon, Honorary Professor for the Centre for Social Research (POLIS) at the Australian National University. They examine the economic toll of the crisis on Asia, how the region's economies have weathered it, whether new forms of cooperation point toward stronger economic security, and how quickly conditions can improve as the Strait reopens. Wendy Cutler, Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute, moderates. Subscribe for more videos like this: http://AsiaSociety.org/YouTube --- Support Asia Society today: http://AsiaSociety.org/Donate --- Subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected: https://asiasociety.org/email-subscriptions --- Facebook: http://facebook.com/AsiaSociety Instagram: http://instagram.com/AsiaSociety Twitter: http://twitter.com/AsiaSociety LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/asia-society/ #straitofhormuz #energysecurity #asia #asiasocietypolicyinstitute 00:00 – Panel Introduction 01:49 – Discussion