Sri Lanka on Wednesday confirmed that a so-called Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 was authorised by its government to dock at the Colombo port, news agency AFP reported. The ship is expected to arrive as early as Wednesday (October 25) according to international ship tracking website MarineTraffic.
The spacecraft-tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 led to tensions between New Delhi and Colombo and Beijing last year when India raised security concerns that China was sending a spy ship to snoop on India’s power plants and nuclear power facilities using the ship.
Chinese media outlets also categorised the Shi Yan 6 as a research vessel. India has always considered the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to be in its sphere of influence and has been suspicious of China’s increasing presence there as well as Sri Lanka as the nation is placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes.
The confirmation was given by a foreign ministry spokesman who said that Shi Yan 6 was authorised to dock in Colombo. The AFP report said that China operates a deep-sea container terminal at the Colombo port.
“Clearance was given for the vessel to come to Colombo for replenishment,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by AFP.
China says that Shi Yan 6 is a “scientific research vessel” with a crew of 60 to conduct oceanography, geology and marine ecology tests.
Sri Lanka did not divulge how long the vessel will remain docked at the Colombo port.
The Yuan Wang 5 last year docked in Hambantota despite New Delhi’s concerns. It has maintained that the Yuan Wang 5 is being touted as a research vessel but is actually a spy ship which specialises in spacecraft tracking.
The Yuan Wang 5 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 taken for the project.
Sri Lanka defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in 2022 leading to an unprecedented economic crisis which was partly blamed on Chinese loans used to build white-elephant infrastructure projects between 2005 and 2015.
China is the owner of 52% of cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s bilateral debt and Sri Lanka needs approval from Beijing to restructure its outstanding loans.
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