China defends military ship’s planned visit to India’s neighbour Sri Lanka

By Yew Lun Tian and Krishna N. Das

BEIJING/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -China mentioned on Friday it hoped “related events” would chorus from interfering with its legit maritime actions, after New Delhi voiced concern over a Chinese language navy ship’s deliberate go to to a port in India’s southern neighbour Sri Lanka.

India worries that the Chinese language-built and leased port of Hambantota will probably be utilized by China as a navy base in India’s yard. The $1.5 billion port is close to the principle transport route from Asia to Europe.

Delivery information from Refinitiv Eikon confirmed Chinese language analysis and survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 was en path to Hambantota and because of arrive on Aug. 11, at a time when Sri Lanka is dealing with its worst financial disaster in seven many years. India has supplied Sri Lanka with practically $4 billion in help this yr alone.

Throughout a weekly briefing late on Thursday, an Indian overseas ministry spokesman mentioned the federal government was monitoring the deliberate go to of the Chinese language ship, including that New Delhi would shield its safety and financial pursuits.

India has already lodged a verbal protest with the Sri Lankan authorities in opposition to the ship’s go to, Reuters reported on Thursday.

In response to questions from Reuters, China’s overseas ministry mentioned Beijing had all the time exercised freedom of the excessive seas lawfully.

“China hopes that the related events will view and report on China’s marine scientific analysis actions accurately and chorus from interfering with regular and bonafide maritime actions,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement.

Relations between India and China have been strained since armed clashes on their border two years in the past killed no less than 20 Indian and 4 Chinese language troopers and led to an enormous build-up of troops on either side.

Overseas safety analysts describe the Yuan Wang 5 as one among China’s newest era space-tracking ships, used to watch satellite tv for pc, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The Pentagon’s annual report on China’s navy modernisation says the Yuan Wang ships are operated by the Strategic Help Pressure of the Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA).

A Sri Lankan consulting agency, the Belt & Highway Initiative Sri Lanka, mentioned on its web site that the Yuan Wang 5 could be in Hambantota for every week and “conduct house monitoring, satellite tv for pc management and analysis monitoring within the northwestern a part of the Indian Ocean area by way of August and September”.

Sri Lanka formally handed over industrial actions at its important southern port to a Chinese language firm in 2017 on a 99-year lease after struggling to repay its debt.

China is one among Sri Lanka’s largest lenders and has additionally funded airports, roads and railways, unnerving India, which is now making an attempt to claw again misplaced floor.

Sri Lanka angered India in 2014 when it allowed a Chinese language submarine and a warship to dock in Colombo.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi, Yew Lun Tian in Beijing and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Enhancing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Heinrich)