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India says it will protect its interests as Chinese boat heads to Sri Lanka | India News


NEW DELHI / COLOMBO: India, the country trying to expand its influence during the crisis Sri Lanka after China made deep inroads there, said on Thursday it was aware of reports of an expected visit by a Chinese vessel to a Sri Lanka The port was built with Beijing’s money.
Shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon shows the research and survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 is en route to the southern Sri Lankan port of Hambantota and is expected to arrive on August 11.
“The government is carefully monitoring any developments related to India’s security and economic interests, and is taking every step,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi. necessary measures to protect them”.
“I think that should be a clear message.”
He did not say what measures India was taking or to whom the message was being sent.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sri Lankan officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
A Sri Lankan government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Indian diplomats in Colombo filed a verbal protest with the Sri Lankan foreign ministry on Monday.
‘Spatial TRACKING’
A Sri Lankan consulting firm, the Sri Lanka Belt & Road Initiative, says on its website that Yuan Wang 5 will be in Hambantota for a week.
“The ship will conduct space tracking, satellite control and research tracking in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean region throughout August and September,” it said, without citing a source. .
Sri Lanka officially handed over commercial operations at its main southern port to a Chinese company in 2017 under a 99-year lease after struggling to repay debt. Port near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.
American and Indian officials have been concerned that the $1.5 billion port could become a Chinese military base.
A Sri Lankan official told Reuters on Monday that Beijing was welcome to pour more money into the vast Chinese-backed projects in Hambantota and Colombo.
China is one of Sri Lanka’s biggest lenders and has also financed airports, roads and railways, worrying India.
As Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, this year alone, India has provided nearly $4 billion in aid to the country.
Responding to a tweet about a proposed visit to Hambantota, Indian security analyst Nitin A. Gokhale cited Sri Lanka’s decision to allow Chinese submarines and warships to dock in Colombo in 2014, a move that prompted India was angry at that time.
“2014 redux?”, Gokhale said on Twitter. “Innocent port call or deliberate provocation?”
India’s concerns about China’s influence in Sri Lanka come to the US presidency Joe Biden and of China Xi Jinping held Thursday’s call as leaders on Thursday amid tensions over a visit to Taiwan claimed by China by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Also on Thursday, Taiwan’s military fired flares to warn a drone “glancing” at a strategically located and fortified island near the Chinese coast might be probing the possibility. their defense, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said.





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