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Lanka caught in Indo-China rift over proposed visit of Chinese research vessel
Indo-China tensions have once again surfaced testing Sri Lanka’s neutrality in the Indian Ocean and becoming a headache for President Ranil Wickremesinghe — whether to grant approval for the Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 to enter Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and engage in scientific studies amidst renewed Indian protests that this is a spy ship and inimical to India’s security.
The Government is yet to decide on the request by the Chinese embassy to allow the vessel to dock on a still unspecified date, the Foreign Ministry’s Public Diplomacy Director Priyanga Wickramasinghe told the Sunday Times. The Ministry was following the usual diplomatic procedures on the request, she said.
Navy spokesman Gayan Wickramasuriya told the Sunday Times earlier that the vessel was due on October 25 and would remain in Sri Lankan waters till November 10, depending on whether permission was granted.
A former Sri Lankan diplomat said the Government was in an unenviable position as what were routine visits to Sri Lanka’s many ports were now challenged due to the heightened tension in the Indian Ocean. “However”, he said “India’s concerns on the ship’s intelligence gathering capabilities” could not be ruled out. The 4000-ton deep ocean scientific research ship is capable of carrying out geophysical exploration, studying oceanography, marine geology and ecology in addition to gathering samples that can be analysed at land-based laboratories.
The National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) is the focal point institution when it comes to engaging with joint scientific oceanography-related collaborations with foreign vessels. This includes vessels from China, with which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on May 25, 2017, on a China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for Education and Research and the Chinese Academy of Science. The agreement lapsed last year after a five-year valid period.
Despite a clause that suggested that the MoU can be automatically extended for another five years, NARA informed its Chinese counterpart that it intended to sign a fresh amended MoU.
The MoU, seen by the Sunday Times, allows both parties to agree that any data obtained from the collaboration can be shared among the parties and “may not be disclosed to or used by any third party without the prior consent of other party unless it is otherwise agreed upon and signed by the parties on a case by case project agreement under the MoU.”
NARA’s senior officials and scientists reiterated that whatever data gathered in the joint collaboration should be considered the property of the Sri Lankan state and NARA scientists should be onboard throughout the research period including when the vessel entered Sri Lanka’s EEZ.
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