Sri Lanka confirms the Yuan Wang 5 ship will arrive next week, despite concerns from neighboring India.
Sri Lanka says it has given a controversial Chinese research vessel permission to visit the island, despite security concerns from neighboring India.
The Yuan Wang 5 is described as a research and survey vessel by international shipping and analysis sites, but it is a dual-use spy ship, according to Indian media.
Both China and India have sought to expand their influence in Sri Lanka, which is facing the worst economic crisis in its post-independence history.
India has provided more aid to Sri Lanka than any other nation this year. But it fears its larger and more powerful rival China will use the port of Hambantota, near the main Asia-Europe shipping route, as a military base.
The Yuan Wang 5 was originally scheduled to dock at a port in Hambantota on Sri Lanka’s southern coast on Aug. 11, but will now arrive on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said.
The visit was originally approved on July 12, a day before former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled after months of protests over the country’s economic crisis.
Rajapaksa – whose brother Mahinda borrowed heavily from China as president from 2005 to 2015 – resigned after fleeing to Singapore.
Tens of thousands of protesters overran his palace and home in Colombo after accusing him of economic mismanagement that has led to acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
Sri Lanka leased the Hambantota deepwater port to China for 99 years for $1.12 billion, less than the $1.4 billion Sri Lanka paid a Chinese company to build.
According to Indian reports, the Yuan Wang 5 could be used for space and satellite tracking and is used specifically in launching ICBMs.
India’s Foreign Ministry said it would “closely monitor any impact on India’s security and economic interests and take all necessary measures to protect them.”
India has denied claims it pressured Sri Lanka to turn the ship away.
“We categorically reject the ‘insinuation’ and such statements about India. Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and makes its own independent decisions,” said Arindam Bagchi, a foreign ministry spokesman.