Indian and Chinese foreign ministers were to attend a regional conference in Uzbekistan yesterday, a day after New Delhi expressed concern over a Chinese military ship’s planned visit to a strategic port in India’s southern neighbor Sri Lanka.
New Delhi worries that the Chinese-built and leased Hambantota port will be used by China as a military base in India’s backyard. The US$1.5 billion port is near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.
Relations between India and China have been strained since armed clashes on their border two years ago killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
Photo: Reuters
Shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon showed the research and survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 was en route to Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and was expected to arrive on Aug. 11, as the country is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades. India has provided its neighbor with nearly US$4 billion in support this year alone.
Foreign security analysts describe the Yuan Wang 5 as one of China’s latest generation of space-tracking ships, which monitors satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
The Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military modernization says the Yuan Wang ships are operated by the Strategic Support Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
The Indian government is monitoring the planned visit of the Chinese ship, Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday, adding that New Delhi would protect its security and economic interests.
Bagchi declined to say if Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar would meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. SCO members include China, India, Russia, Pakistan and central Asian nations.
Sri Lanka is a “dialogue partner” in the group, but it was not immediately clear if it was attending.
India has lodged a verbal protest with the Sri Lankan government against the ship’s visit.
A Sri Lankan consulting firm, Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka, said on its Web site that the Yuan Wang 5 would be in Hambantota for one week to “conduct space tracking, satellite control and research tracking in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean region through August and September.”
Sri Lanka formally handed over commercial activities at its main southern port to a Chinese company in 2017 on a 99-year lease after struggling to repay its debt.
China is one of Sri Lanka’s biggest lenders and has also funded airports, roads and railways, unnerving India.
Sri Lanka angered India in 2014 when it allowed a Chinese submarine and a warship to dock in Colombo.
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