Crisis deepens over Chinese vessel
The Chinese Embassy will consult Beijing before responding to Sri Lanka’s request on Friday that the scheduled docking of the Yuan Wang 5 tracking vessel at the Hambantota Port be postponed, Sri Lanka was told yesterday.
Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong conveyed this to President Ranil Wickremesinghe during a brief meeting held at the diplomat’s request yesterday, authoritative sources said. The docking of the ship has turned into a geopolitical headache for the Sri Lankan Government, with India lodging strong protests on the basis that the “spy vessel” threatens its national security.
Clearance to anchor the vessel was granted by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) before President Wickremesinghe took over. But Indian news reports claim that New Delhi had not been informed at the time until it sought clarification from Colombo.
The vessel is now in mid-sea near Indonesia, heading directly for Hambantota. It is scheduled to berth in Hambantota from August 11-17. But on Friday, amidst a continued expression of displeasure from India, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry wrote a Third Person Note (TPN) to the Chinese Embassy requesting “that the arrival date of the vessel Yuan Wang 5 in Hambantota be deferred until further consultations are made on this matter.