India, China ministers at summit as Chinese ship heads to Sri Lanka

Delhi worries Chinese-built and leased Hambantota port will be used by China as a military base in India’s backyard

Indian and Chinese foreign ministers were to attend a regional conference in Uzbekistan on Friday, a day after New Delhi expressed concern over a Chinese survey ship’s planned visit to a strategic port in India’s southern neighbour Sri Lanka.

New Delhi worries that the Chinese-built and leased Hambantota port will be used by China as a military base in India’s backyard. The $1.5 billion port is near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.

Shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon showed research and survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 was en route to Hambantota and was expected to arrive on Aug. 11, at a time when Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades. India has provided its neighbour nearly $4 billion in support this year alone.

During a weekly briefing late on Thursday, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the government was monitoring the planned visit of the Chinese ship, adding that New Delhi would protect its security and economic interests.

Read more: Sri Lankan protests and India

Spokesman Arindam Bagchi declined to say if Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. SCO members include China, India, Russia, Pakistan and central Asian nations.

Sri Lanka is a “dialogue partner” in the group but it was not immediately clear if it was attending.

China has not officially commented on the ship’s visit and the matter has not gained traction in Chinese media. China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

India has already lodged a verbal protest with the Sri Lankan government against the ship’s visit, Reuters reported on Thursday.

A Sri Lankan consulting firm, the Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka, said on its website that Yuan Wang 5 would be in Hambantota for a week and will “conduct space tracking, satellite control and research tracking in the north-western part of the Indian Ocean region through August and September”.

Sri Lanka formally handed over commercial activities in its main southern port to a Chinese company in 2017 on a 99-year lease after struggling to repay its debt.

China is one of Sri Lanka’s biggest lenders and has also funded airports, roads and railways, unnerving India, which is now trying to claw back lost ground.

Sri Lanka angered India in 2014 when it allowed a Chinese submarine and a warship to dock in Colombo.