Team News Riveting
Colombo, July 30
Instead of sending aid to Sri Lanka battling to overcome from the economic crisis, China is sending a Chinese military ship to a port near India.
India worries that the Chinese-built and leased port of Hambantota will be used by China as a military base in its backyard. The $1.5 billion port is near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe. Sri Lanka formally handed over commercial activities at its main southern port to a Chinese company in 2017 on a 99-year lease after failing to repay the debt.
According to shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon, Chinese research and survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 was en route to Hambantota and due to arrive on August 11, at a time when Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades. India has provided Sri Lanka with nearly $4 billion in support this year alone.
India has already lodged a verbal protest with the Sri Lankan government against the ship’s visit. The island nation that is struggling to put the things in order at home had been landed into a fresh diplomatic trouble by China.
The Indian foreign ministry spokesman on Thursday said the government was monitoring the planned visit of the Chinese ship. New Delhi would protect its security and economic interests, he added.
“China hopes that the relevant parties will view and report on China’s marine scientific research activities correctly and refrain from interfering with normal and legitimate maritime activities,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Sri Lankan consulting firm, the Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka, said on its website that the Yuan Wang 5 would be in Hambantota for a week and “conduct space tracking, satellite control and research tracking in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean region through August and September”.
