Chinese 'research' ship arrives in Maldives triggering security concerns in Indian Ocean
Chinese 'research' ship arrives in Maldives, sparks security concerns among Indian authorities
Amid growing tensions between India and Maldives, a Chinese 'research' ship reportedly entered the waters of the island nation on Thursday (Feb 22), news agency Reuters reported citing global ship-tracking data.
This comes just three months after a similar vessel visited the Indian Ocean and sparked security concerns among the Indian authorities.
The visit by the ship also comes following the remarks by a US think tank that China's navy could "leverage the insights gained from these missions" for the deployment of naval forces, a claim Beijing calls part of a concocted image-smearing "China threat" narrative.
Xiang Yang Hong 03, which is owned by a research institute that reports to China's natural resources ministry, made a port call in Male more than a month after leaving its home port of Xiamen in southeastern China, added the Reuters report citing data from MarineTraffic.
Before its arrival, the civilian ship, for three weeks, had surveyed waters outside the exclusive economic zones of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, the ship-tracking data showed.
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Research done"exclusively" for peaceful purposes, claims China
China's foreign ministry has claimed that the "research" done by the vessel was "exclusively" for peaceful purposes to benefit scientific understanding.
Watch:India-Maldives tensions: Despite row, India's projects in Maldives gain pace
According to the report, an Indian security official previously said that the vessels were "dual-use", which means that they collect data which can be used for both civilian as well as military purposes.
Xiang Yang Hong 03 has made multiple visits to the Indian Ocean.
It sailed through the Sunda Strait in Indonesia in the year 2021, raising concerns among Indonesian authorities, who claimed that it had turned off its tracking system three times.
Such Chinese 'research' vessels have also stopped in nearby Sri Lanka.
In the year 2022, Yuan Wang 5, a military vessel capable of tracking rocket and missile launches, arrived in Colombo, raising security concerns in New Delhi.
Before Sri Lanka imposed a year-long moratorium on foreign research ships, effectively denying China a port of call, a Chinese research vessel docked in the island nation for the very last time in October 2023.
(With inputs from the agencies)