Despite India’s worries that it would spy on New Delhi’s military facilities, authorities said Sri Lanka’s government on Saturday authorised a contentious Chinese research vessel to visit the island. International shipping and analytics websites refer to the Yuan Wang 5 as a research and survey vessel, however, Indian media describes it as a dual-purpose espionage ship.
Beijing’s expanding presence in the Indian Ocean and influence in Sri Lanka raise suspicion in New Delhi, which sees both as firmly within its area of influence. The Chinese-run Hambantota port in Sri Lanka was scheduled to receive the Yuan Wang 5 on August 11, but Colombo requested Beijing to postpone the visit indefinitely after India raised concerns. Sri Lanka’s harbour master Nirmal P. Silva, however, claimed that he had obtained permission from the foreign ministry for the ship to call in Hambantota from August 16 to 22.
According to officials in the foreign ministry, Colombo had extended the first clearance for the visit, which had been given on July 12—the day before the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country after months of unrest over the nation’s worst-ever economic crisis. After escaping to Singapore, Rajapaksa—whose brother Mahinda borrowed extensively from China while serving as president from 2005 to 2015—resigned.
Following accusations of poor leadership during an economic crisis that resulted in severe shortages of food, fuel, and medications, tens of thousands of demonstrators occupied Rajapaksa’s palace and residence in Colombo. On Friday night, according to port officials, the Chinese ship was roughly 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southeast of Sri Lanka and slowly making its way into the Hambantota deep sea port.
Sri Lanka paid less than the $1.4 billion to a Chinese company to build the port, and leased it to China for 99 years for $1.12 billion. Indian reports claim that the Yuan Wang 5 has specialised applications for intercontinental ballistic missile launches and may be used for tracking satellites and spacecraft.