Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochina Peninsula and historically Indochina, includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Insular Southeast Asia, also known as the Malay Archipelago and historically Nusantara, includes the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India), Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.[6 ][7][8]
The area is located near the intersection of geological plates, with both intense seismic and volcanic activity. The Sunda Plate is the main geological plate of the region, which includes most of Southeast Asia except Myanmar, northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Vietnam and northern Luzon of the Philippines. The mountain ranges in Myanmar, Thailand and peninsular Malaysia are part of the Alpide belt, while the islands of the Philippines are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Both seismic belts meet in Indonesia, making the area relatively susceptible to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.[9]
The region covers about 4,500,000 square kilometers (1,700,000 sq mi), which is 10.5% of Asia or 3% of the total area of the Earth. The total population of Southeast Asia is more than 655 million people, accounting for about 8.5% of the world population. It is the third most populous geographical region in Asia after South Asia and East Asia.[10] The region is culturally and ethnically diverse, with hundreds of languages spoken by different ethnic groups.[11] The ten countries in the region are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional organization established to integrate the economic, political, military, educational and cultural integration of nations. membership.[12][13]
Southeast Asian ethnic groups take the Austronesian and Malay ethnic groups as the dominant, the inhabitants of the region are mostly Muslim and Buddhist, other religions such as Christianity, Hinduism and religion have related to animism also exists within this area. Indonesia is the most Muslim country in the world, Thailand is the world's largest Buddhist country, and the Philippines is the largest Roman Catholic country in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Southeast Asia is located at the "crossroads" between Asia and Oceania, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The Strait of Malacca is the "most" of this intersection, extremely important strategic position. The Strait of Malacca is located between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra island, with a total length of about 1,080 km, only 3.7 km at the narrowest point, enough for ships with a tonnage of 250,000 tons, most countries on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. passing through this maritime route to South Asia, West Asia, the east coast of Africa and the countries adjacent to the coast in Europe. The countries bordering the Malacca Strait are Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, in which Singapore is at the narrowest point of the Malacca Strait, which is a particularly important traffic position.
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