COLOMBO: Sri Lanka confirmed on Wednesday the anticipated arrival of a Chinese research vessel, following a visit by a spacecraft-tracking ship last year that raised security concerns from neighbouring India.
New Delhi remains wary of China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in Sri Lanka, which is strategically placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes.
A foreign ministry spokesperson said the Shi Yan 6 had been authorized to dock in Colombo, where a Chinese state-owned company operates a deep-sea container terminal.
“Clearance was given for the vessel to come to Colombo for replenishment,” the spokesman, who preferred to remain anonymous, told AFP.
The Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN classifies the Shi Yan 6 as a “scientific research vessel” with a crew of 60 to conduct geology, oceanography and marine ecology tests.
According to the International ship tracking website Marine Traffic said the vessel was due to reach Colombo as soon as Wednesday.
The foreign ministry did not say how long the vessel would remain docked there.
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Last year, India had expressed concerns over a Sri Lanka port call by Chinese research vessel Yuan Wang 5, which specializes in spacecraft tracking and which India described as a spy ship.
The vessel had docked in Hambantota, a port in Sri Lanka’s south under a 99-year lease to the Chinese company that built it after Colombo was unable to service a $1.4 billion loan obtained for the project.
Sri Lanka had encountered financial difficulties, leading to a default on its $46 billion external debt in the preceding year. This default was part of an unprecedented economic crisis, with Chinese loans being cited as a contributing factor, particularly in the construction of costly infrastructure projects considered to be of limited utility, constructed between 2005 and 2015.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe attended a Beijing forum last week that centred around China’s extensive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure program worth multibillion dollars.
