Sri Lanka Bans Entry Of Chinese Ships Entering Ports For A Year (image-twitter/daniel86cricket)
Sri Lanka informed India that the country will not allow any Chinese research vessel to dock at its port within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for a period of one year, reports Hindustan Times.
The year began with the implementation of a year-long moratorium on foreign research vessels from operating in its waters. This move came after the meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in which he has urged the country to respect Indian strategic and security concerns.
The declared moratorium was informed to India through apex diplomatic channels last week. The moratorium is considered to be a big win for India as it has raised alarm over the Chinese research vessels surveying the vast swathes of the Indian Oceanic Region (IOR) under the pretext of conducting scientific tests, reports The EurAsian Times.
By this declared moratorium, the Chinese scientific research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 3 will no longer be able to conduct “deep water exploration” in south Indian Ocean from January 5, 2024 to late May. China has also asked Maldives to let the 4,600 tonne Xiamen-based vessel to conduct a survey off the coast of Male.
The latest in the Chinese Oceanographic survey vessels coming into the region for a three-month long mission is Shi Yan 6. It docked the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka in 2023.
These surveys conducted by China is capable of producing data that benefits both civilian as well as military purposes. Seismic data is critical in assessing geopolitical conditions, the hydrocarbons, water and seabed conditions also affect the ability to detect submarines. They can also use their instruments for naval reconnaissance, for gathering intelligence on foreign military facilities and vessels operating in the vicinity.
India has noted the increase of the presence of Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean. Noting the sudden rise, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that in the past 20-25 years, there has been a steady increase in the Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean.
“But there’s been a very sharp increase in the size of the Chinese Navy. So, when you have a very much bigger navy, that Navy is going to be visible in terms of its deployment somewhere,” he said, citing the examples of Chinese port-building in Gwadar in Pakistan and Hambantota in Sri Lanka.
The Chinese-run ports in South Asia- Chittagong in Bangladesh, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and Gwadar in Pakistan are known as “triangle of death” encircling India.
Earlier in the past, Chinese research ships, ballistic missile trackers and hydrographic vessels entered the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and conducted deep surveys in the south of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
However, the Chinese has called their presence in India’s backyard as benign and Shi Yan 6 is called a “scientific research vessel”.
