The Strait of Hormuz blockade hit Asia’s economies particularly hard. Image: X Screengrab
The initial market reaction to US and Israeli military strikes on Iran was familiar: Brent crude surged in early Asian trading, equity markets slipped and headlines focused on the energy shock to come.
But months later, the conflict appeared to become much more than an energy disruption — it served as a stress test for Asia’s trade architecture, exposing vulnerabilities that run far deeper than elevated oil prices alone.
For corporates, logistics providers and policymakers across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the seemingly more consequential story unfolded in shipping lanes, compliance departments, export control registers and trade finance desks.
How the region responds could influence not just its near-term economic outlook, but the structure of Asian trade for years to come.
When Hormuz closes, Asia is among the first affected
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a third of global seaborne crude oil and around 20% of global liquefied natural gas shipments pass — had near-term consequences for Asia’s most commodity-dependent economies.
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong all import more than 80% of their domestic energy needs. Nearly 90% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported through the Strait flows to Asian buyers. Asia generates two-thirds of global GDP growth and accounts for 40% of world trade while remaining heavily dependent on imported energy.
The disruption extended well beyond energy. A third of global seaborne fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, meaning that as gas prices rise, fertilizer costs follow and food prices with them. Some Asian exports have also faced delays or rerouting. India’s agricultural exports to Gulf markets have reportedly slowed as freight and insurance costs spike.
In addition, Qatar is the world’s second-largest producer of helium — a critical input for semiconductor manufacturing — and reports of disruptions at LNG facilities have raised the risk of interruptions in helium production
A strategic panel entitled ‘Made by Euromed: Europe MENA economic and partnership roadmaps for integration and shared sovereignty’ was held at EUROMED DAYS 2026, highlighting the importance of cooperation between Europe and MENA to strengthen resilience, competitiveness and sustainable development.
During his introductory statement, Emmanuel Noutary, General Delegate of ANIMA Investment Network and moderator of the discussion, referred to the significant geopolitical changes being recorded internationally, noting that new conflicts and new alliances are shaping a different global environment.
According to Noutary, within this new reality, strengthening cooperation between neighboring countries is not simply an option, but a necessity for strengthening the resilience and stability of the wider region.
At the same time, he emphasised that Europe is faced with increasing dependencies on critical technologies originating from other regions of the world, which makes cooperation with its partners in the Mediterranean and the Middle East even more important.
According to Noutary, the discussion on Europe’s economic and strategic sovereignty cannot take place without the participation of the countries of the wider Euro-Mediterranean region. As he noted, Europe and MENA are called upon to jointly examine how they can invest in their own collective resilience and sovereignty through joint initiatives and strategic partnerships.
Emmanuel Noutary also referred to the importance of relations with major global powers, pointing out that the relationship with China is one of the issues that directly affects the strategic planning and economic positioning of the region in the coming years.
The panel included Irene Piki, Deputy Minister to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Tarak Chérif, President of ANIMA Investment Network, and Tarek Tawfik, President of BusinessMed as well as James X. Zhan, Chairman of the World Investment Conference.
EUROMED DAYS – Connecting Regions, Empowering Growth: Mediterranean-Europe Investment Partnerships for a Resilient Future Forum, was organised by Invest Cyprus and the ANIMA Investment Network.
Gulf-to-Europe Railway to Ease Hormuz Disruption and land here. A Scenic sunset view of a metro train crossing Haliç Bridge in Istanbul with cityscape and water. by Zeynep Sude Emek via Pexels
Turkiye and Saudi Arabia aim to build a railway to link the two countries with Jordan and Syria in the next three or four years, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said Sunday, adding other Gulf countries would also join the project.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Uraloglu said the railway would help alleviate in future the problems that have arisen from the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz caused by the war in Iran. The project is described in a memorandum of understanding signed between Ankara and Riyadh last week on logistics cooperation and the railway sector.
In the initial phase, a rail link would allow for the transport of goods, oil, natural gas and people between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Jordan, Syria and Europe, Uraloglu said, adding that the Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and possibly Yemen would be included later too.
“A train leaving from Saudi Arabia, from Riyadh already reaches several regions of Saudi Arabia. So this is a project for it to reach Turkiye via Jordan and Syria. We are talking about a route that will carry every type of freight via this route to Europe,” Uraloglu was cited as saying. He said the route from Saudi Arabia to Jordan’s border had been finished and on the Turkish side, the link was completed from Islahiye to Kilis and Gaziantep in southeastern Turkiye, near the border with Syria.
That leaves a gap of some 400km between Syria and Jordan, he said.
In addition to commercial trade, Uraloglu said the railway could also be used by people on the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Turkiye, which neighbours Syria, has built close ties with the government in Damascus after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024 and has said it will help the country rebuild.
Uraloglu told Al Jazeera a financial plan would be drawn up for the rail project. The investment would include some $100mn to rebuild the route between Turkiye and Syria’s Aleppo, creating a direct link to Damascus.
In a recent study, scientists have proposed a blueprint to harness extremophytes—plants that thrive in multi-stress desert environments—for designing climate-resilient crops for arid lands and promoting sustainable agriculture practices.
The study, led by Mohsin Tanveer and WANG Lei from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with other researchers, was published in Global Change Biology on June 3.
Anthropogenic climate change is accelerating soil aridification and salinization, threatening over half of the global arable land and food security. Conventional crops are reaching their physiological limits under intensifying arid stress.
Josep Penuelas, research professor of the National Research Council of Spain, and co-corresponding author of the study, said: “Extremophytes do not merely survive harsh conditions; they actively regenerate ecosystem multifunctionality.”
WANG from the XIEG said: “Integrating extremophytes into diversified agroecosystems transforms non-arable land into productive, self-sustaining systems, and this is the essence of a circular bioeconomy for arid regions.”
The synergistic salinity-drought feedback loop and the niche for extremophyte resistance. (Image by XIEG)
For the study, researchers synthesized the functional traits of extremophytes to identify key transferable adaptation strategies. The team focused on two core mechanisms: the precise spatiotemporal orchestration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as signaling molecules, and the active modification of the rhizosphere through targeted root exudation to recruit stress-protective microbiomes.
The study found that extremophytes avoid oxidative damage not by eliminating ROS, but by confining ROS signals to specific tissues and cellular compartments, allowing them to trigger tolerance responses without cellular toxicity.
Furthermore, these plants release specific exudates to enrich beneficial microbes such as Truepera and Halomonas. The enriched microbes help transform barren soil into a functional ecosystem and improve soil structure, water retention, and nutrient cycling. Domesticated crops have largely lost this sophisticated adaptive trait.
“The extremophyte rhizosphere is not just a zone of nutrient exchange; it is a highly orchestrated microbial recruitment engine,” said the XIEG’s Tanveer, also the first author of the study. He highlighted the critical role of microbiome-mediated adaptation: “By decoding how these plants signal and select their beneficial microbiome partners, we can engineer crops that actively build a protective living buffer around their roots.”
To develop a coherent framework for translating extremophyte biological mechanisms into sustainable agriculture practices, the research team proposes a circular bioeconomy model in which extremophytes such as Salicornia, Suaeda, and Alhagi are used for food, fodder, bioenergy, and phytoremediation on degraded lands. Intercropping extremophytes with cotton or spinach can reduce soil salinity by 40-51%, increasing yield and soil health.
“By restoring soil microbial networks and carbon sequestration pathways, these plants offer a nature-based solution that aligns directly with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger (SDG 2) and Climate Action (SDG 13),” Penuelas said.
System-level strategy of reactive oxygen species control as a survival strategy in an extremophytes in an arid environment. (Image by XIEG)
In sport, fairness matters. But when it comes to buying tickets to watch the world’s biggest ever sporting event, money matters too.
Attending the men’s Fifa World Cup 2026 will be much more expensive than any previous World Cup. And that’s not what fans were promised.
In fact, when the US, Canada and Mexico set out their original bid to host the tournament, they said a seat at the final would cost a maximum of US$1,550 (£1,174).
But by April 2026, the cheapest standard final ticket had reached US$5,785. The most expensive seats hit US$10,990 and later tripled. Just two days before the start of the tournament there were reports of 180,000 unsold tickets.
Politicians in New York and New Jersey have launched a formal investigation into allegations that Fifa has confused fans and inflated prices. Fans have complained of a lack of clarity, with many waiting hours in online queuing systems with no idea of the amount they’d have to pay when (and if) they were allocated tickets.
The increase in costs may remind some music fans of the 2024 scandal over Oasis concert tickets when customers watched prices more than double from £148 to £355 as they waited in online queues.
“Dynamic pricing”, when prices go up and down depending on levels of demand, will also be familiar to anyone who has been surprised by swift changes in the price of flights before a holiday. The same seat can cost more today than it did yesterday simply because more people want it.
Fifa denies that it is has engaged in dynamic pricing, saying that they use “variable pricing” instead. But from a consumer’s point of view, it amounts to the same result – the price of tickets that they want to buy changes, usually in an upward direction.
In response to the Oasis dynamic pricing episode, UK regulators later forced ticket sellers to commit to showing price ranges before fans join a queue. By using a “variable” system, Fifa positions itself outside that regulatory precedent entirely.
It faces no obligation to disclose prices in advance and no requirement to explain how they change.
A game of monopoly
But dynamic pricing isn’t always a bad thing for consumers. In fact, it can help them to get a better deal. Economists studying airline markets found that dynamic pricing can reduce prices as different airlines compete for passengers.
The trouble is that Fifa operates in a market with zero competition. No rival sells World Cup tickets. No substitute product exists.
The work of Nobel prize-winning economist Jean Tirole demonstrated that when a single firm controls an essential platform and operates at every level of the market, competitive discipline on pricing disappears. The operator stops seeking an efficient price and starts trying to extract the very maximum that the consumer will tolerate.
For football World Cups, Fifa sets the primary price. It runs the only sanctioned resale marketplace. It pockets 30% on every secondary transaction when unwanted tickets are sold on. It makes money on the first sale, and earns a bit more on the second.
No outcome costs Fifa money. No regulators intervene. But not everyone is prepared to pay out.
Adjusting for inflation, World Cup ticket prices have been stable for 30 years. Then Fifa introduced its new model and the entire pricing architecture shifted. This would explain all the unsold tickets.
For example, England’s semi-final and final allocations failed to sell out. Every fan who applied got a seat.
After the backlash, Fifa introduced a US$60 “Supporter Entry Tier” for every match, including the final. It amounts to roughly 10% of each national association’s allocation, a few hundred seats in stadiums holding up 80,000. As a pricing intervention, it changes nothing apart from an attempt to absorb criticism.
The day before the World Cub began Fifa president Gianni Infantino defended the level of ticket pricing, claiming that if they were cheaper the majority would have been resold on the black market. He added that the money generated was required to fund football development across the world.
Consumer research explains exactly what went wrong. When people buy a service rarely and can’t understand how the price was set, they don’t just feel frustrated, they feel cheated.
And when they feel cheated, they walk away. Fifa treated fan loyalty as guaranteed demand. Supporters’ reaction proved it isn’t.
Then, at the start of June, Fifa quietly slashed prices across all 104 matches and returned 70% of its block booked hotel rooms due to low demand – a last minute change of tactics probably designed to save face and avoid empty seats. But to many, desperately chasing lost fans after trying to extract more revenue than any World Cup in history already looks like foul play.
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