Sri Lankan govt grants permission to controversial Chinese ship despite India’s concerns

Sri Lanka’s government has granted permission for a controversial Chinese research vessel to visit the island despite India’s concerns that it could spy on New Delhi’s military installations, officials said on Saturday. The ship Yuan Wang 5 is described as a research and survey vessel by international shipping and analytics sites but is said to be a dual-use spy ship. New Delhi is suspicious of Beijing’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean and influence in Sri Lanka, seeing both as being within its sphere of influence.

The Yuan Wang 5 was originally due to call at Sri Lanka’s Chinese-run Hambantota port on August 11, only for Colombo to ask Beijing to indefinitely defer the visit. Sri Lanka government sources said that although India had raised concerns with President Ranil Wickremesinghe himself, it could not give a satisfactory response as to why the ship should not be allowed to dock.

Port officials said the Chinese vessel was about 1,000 kilometers southeast of Sri Lanka on Friday night and was heading slowly towards the Hambantota deep sea port. Sri Lanka leased the port to China for 99 years for 1.12 billion dollars, less than the 1.4 billion dollar Sri Lanka paid a Chinese company to build it. According to sources in the Indian government, the Yuan Wang 5 could be employed for space and satellite tracking and has specific uses in intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Sri Lanka, as a sovereign country, makes its own independent decisions and noted that India would make its judgment on its security concerns based on the prevailing situation in the region, especially in the border areas.