"You take up buckets and fill your trenches with water and call it a moat. Behold, Varuna himself, with his one hand pushing continents aside, fills the gap by pouring seas on seas with the other ! This Indian ocean with its bays and gulfs, is our moat."
--- A Mahratta
Today, this "moat" has transformed into the most critical maritime highway on Earth, serving as the central gravity of global commerce, resource security, and international geopolitics.