choke point

パネッタ米国防長官はシンガポールで開催中のアジア安全保障会議で講演し、2020年までに、アジア太平洋地域に米海軍艦船の約六割を展開する方針を示しました。

The U.S. military largely withdrew from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War ended in the mid-1970s and major U.S. Navy and Air Force bases closed in the Philippines in the early 1990s. The return to the region is still small-scale by those standards.

As part of the plan, the Navy will base four new lightly armed ships in Singapore. They will operate in the Strait of Malacca, a strategic choke point for global transit of oil and trade, and the energy-rich South China Sea, where territorial jostling between China and other countries has raised tensions.

Patrick M. Cronin, an Asia security expert at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, said Japan and other longtime U.S. allies worry that possible defense cuts will make it harder for Washington to play the stepped-up security role that Panetta described.

"It’s complicated when the Chinese see [the pivot] as more real than your allies and partners," Cronin said. "Allies always want more reassurance."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/panetta-explains-pentagon-pivot-toward-asia-.html

choke pointは、その形から推測できるように、「難所、 交通渋滞地点」という意味ですが、これにstrategicがくると「戦略上の拠点、要所、ネック」という意味合いが強まります。bottleneckとほぼ同義です。（UG）