A Chinese research ship arrived in the Maldives yesterday, global ship-tracking data showed, just three months after a similar vessel visited the Indian Ocean and sparked New Delhi’s security concerns.
The visit follows comments last month by a US think tank that China’s navy could “leverage the insights gained from these missions” for deployment of naval forces, a claim Beijing calls part of a concocted image-smearing “China threat” narrative.
Xiang Yang Hong 03, owned by a research institute that reports to the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources, made a port call in the Maldives capital of Male, data from MarineTraffic showed, more than a month after leaving its home port of Xiamen in southeastern China.
Photo: REUTERS
Prior to its arrival, the ship had spent more than three weeks surveying waters just outside the exclusive economic zones of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, the ship-tracking data showed.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that research by the vessel was “exclusively” for peaceful purposes to benefit scientific understanding.
India has in the past few years voiced concern about the presence of Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean, even if they do not belong to the military.
An Indian security official has previously said the vessels were “dual-use,” meaning the data they gather can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
Xiang Yang Hong 03 has visited the Indian Ocean multiple times.
It sailed through the Sunda Strait in Indonesia in 2021, alarming Indonesian authorities, who said it had switched off its tracking system three times. Chinese research vessels have also stopped in nearby Sri Lanka.
In 2022, Yuan Wang 5, a military vessel capable of tracking rocket and missile launches, arrived in Colombo, alarming India.
The last time a Chinese research vessel docked in Sri Lanka was in October last year, reviving India’s concerns. However, Sri Lanka last month imposed a year-long moratorium on foreign research ships, effectively denying China a port of call.
Xiang Yang Hong 03’s arrival follows last month’s visit to China by Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu that upgraded ties, with Beijing offering 920 million yuan (US$128 million) in “free aid.”
The Maldives has said the vessel would do no research in its waters, stopping only for personnel rotation and replenishment of supplies.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion