Colombo:

Sri Lanka has decided to lift from next year a ban on the visit of foreign research ships imposed after strong security concerns raised by India and the US following frequent docking requests from hi-tech Chinese surveillance vessels, the Japanese media reported.

The change in position was conveyed by visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry to the NHK World Japan.

With the increased movement of Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi had expressed concern that those might be spy ships and urged Colombo not to allow such vessels to dock at its ports.

After India raised concern, Sri Lanka banned the entry of foreign research vessels from docking at its port in January. Earlier this year, it had made an exception for a Chinese vessel but said the ban would continue otherwise.

Sabry said his government cannot have different rules for different countries and only block China. He added that his country will not take sides in a dispute between others, the NHK World Japan said in a report on Friday.

The moratorium is till January next year. Sri Lanka will then no longer ban foreign research ships from its ports next year, Sabry said.

Two Chinese spy ships were allowed to dock in Sri Lanka ports within 14 months through November 2023, with one calling for replenishment and the other for research.

Chinese research ship Shi Yan 6 arrived in Sri Lanka in October 2023 and docked at Colombo port, for what Beijing cited as “geophysical scientific research” in collaboration with the island nation’s National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA).

The US had expressed concern to Sri Lanka before the arrival of Shi Yan 6.

In August 2022, Chinese navy vessel Yuan Wang 5 docked at Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka for replenishment.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka considers both India and China equally important partners in its task to restructure its external debt.

The island nation was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves.

Meanwhile, Sabry also expressed gratitude for Japan’s plan to provide a ship equipped with sonar, which, he said, will give Sri Lanka “an opportunity to do its own survey and collect its own data, and commercially exploit it.” Sabry emphasised that Sri Lanka has untapped maritime resources, and research is essential, but it has to be done in a transparent manner, the NHK report added.

Located at a strategic point in the Indian Ocean, the island nation is an important stop for marine traffic between South East Asia and West Asia, which is part of the global trade route.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Within days of India issuing an alert for an impending missile test off the Odisha coast, a Chinese research vessel has raced up India’s eastern seaboard and is currently anchored in international waters off the Indian coastline.

This test – of the Agni-5 missile which has Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology – took place successfully on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed the successful test with a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The Chinese ship, Xian Yang Hong 01, is now less than 260 nautical miles – about 480 kilometres – off the coast of Visakhapatnam. Incidentally, that’s where India bases its three nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, arguably the most sensitive weapons systems in India’s arsenal.

There were reports the missile India was planning was the K-4, a nuclear capable missile designed to be launched by submarines. The missile was designed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 2 tonnes.

Ahead of the test a NOTAM alert was issued last week. NOTAM, meaning notice to airmen, are alerts issued to designate an area as a no-fly zone. The alert was for the Bay of Bengal area, which was seen as a clear indication India is planning a missile test that may take place anytime between March 11 and 16. This no-fly zone earmarked in the NOTAM alert spans 3,500 kilometres, well into the south of the Bay of Bengal.

China has been monitoring India’s activities, including missile tests off the eastern seaboard. Hence, the positioning of Xiang Yang Hong 01, a 4,813-tonne research vessel, and the timing has raised suspicion. NDTV has tracked how the ship has changed its position over the past week before reaching its current location. 

This vessel entered the Malacca straits on March 6 and was spotted between the Great Nicobar Island and Indian peninsula on March 8. The ship, which went into service in 2016, is about 100 metres long and has a range of 15,000 nautical miles, according to reports in the Chinese state media. It has remote sensing equipment that can enable exploration to depths up to 10,000 metres, the reports say.

It is believed that the ship has sensors to detect sub-surface acoustic signatures. This means it may sense sound associated with the of submarines. These sounds can be detected through the ship’s sonar and the buoys it deploys, and this may be used to record the acoustic footprints of submarines and possible underwater launches. This information is nothing less than an intelligence goldmine.

The Navy has told NDTV that the vessel is “being monitored”. “As of now the vessel is operating outside the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Bay of Bengal,” it has said.

The developments off the Indian coast come weeks after another Chinese ship of the same class set off alarm bells in New Delhi.

The Xiang Yang Hong 03, which is now off the Sri Lankan cost and is surveying the region, docked in the Maldives last month. This came amid strained ties between New Delhi and Male after Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu asked Indian troops to leave. Ties between India and the Maldives have touched an all-time low after Muizzu took over as President last year. Following a visit to Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Muizzu had said, “We may be small, but this doesn’t give them the licence to bully us.” The remark, which did not name any country, was seen as a swipe at India. 

India has played down the strain in ties. Asked about the relations between India and the Maldives, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said neighbours need each other. “History and geography are very powerful forces. There is no escape from that.”

Before the Chinese vessel docked in Male last month, the Maldives had said it would not conduct any research but will only come for “rotation and replenishment”. India’s concerns, however, were not limited to the waters of the Maldives. The ship has been moving in the waters between the Maldives and Sri Lanka in a zigzag manner.

Navy Chief Admiral R Kumar has told NDTV that charting underwater regions “may have military applications as well, in terms of the ability to deploy submarines or operate submarines”.

Chinese research ship Shiyan 6 is seen berthed at Colombo harbor, Sri Lanka, on October 26, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese research vessel Shiyan 6, which arrived in Colombo last week amid concerns raised by India and the United States, is set to begin its two-day research off the Sri Lankan coast today, Sri Lankan authorities said.

The research will be pursued off Sri Lanka’s western coast, and in collaboration with Sri Lanka’s National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) and the University of Ruhuna, according to a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo. Asked about the nature of research, the spokesperson told The Hindu: “It is marine scientific research.” The Ministry had earlier said the vessel was at the Colombo port for “replenishment”.

Research ship Shiyan 6 was added to China’s fleet of marine research vessels in December 2020. Said to be the country’s first scientific research vessel focusing on geophysical exploration, it is scheduled to operate at sea for about 80 days, with 13 research teams onboard pursuing 28 scientific research projects across 12,000 nautical miles, the state-run China Global Television Network reported in September.

Both, India and the US raised concern over the vessel’s visit, as the two countries had done in the past, around earlier visits of Chinese vessels. Sri Lankan media reported that the issue also came up in talks held by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Beijing earlier this month.  

In September this year, ‘INS Delhi’, India’s first indigenously built destroyer undertook a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka. Last week, ‘ROKS Gwanggaeto the Great’ of the Korean Navy and more recently, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer AKEBONO (DD 108) arrived at the Trincomalee harbour, located on Sri Lanka’s north-eastern coast, on an official visit.