Warship in troubled waters
From the outset, it made little sense for the Chinese to send a spy ship to Sri Lanka when the country was reeling under its worst-ever economic crises. Colombo could have done without getting caught in strategic rivalry. It was chicanery on Beijing’s part to have sought permission from a dying regime for a ‘research ship’ — which spies on a country’s coastal defences on the side — to dock at Hambantota. The Presidential Palace in Colombo was about to be stormed and President Gotabaya Rakapaksa was literally packing his bags. A new administration in Colombo under Ranil Wickremsinghe as President was served a Chinese fait accompli when it took over because the ship was a few days’ sail away from Hambantota.
After the new regime withdrew permission to dock and with no alternative port immediately available, the Chinese pulled the strings to gain a reluctant permission. The matter should have ended at that. But the Chinese envoy sought to set off Sri Lanka against India in a series of tweets. Some were laughably naïve, such as equating the Taiwan crisis to the docking of the spy ship. But there was a crude bid to drive a wedge between India and Sri Lanka by alleging that Sri Lanka had been invaded by its northern neighbour 17 times. He, perhaps, tabulated all the local skirmishes involving ancient and medieval kingdoms on either side of the Palk Strait.
The Chinese envoy was also wrong when he faulted India for raising ‘security concerns’ without any evidence. He omitted to inform that when Sri Lanka relented and allowed the ship to dock, three conditions were imposed. It had to keep its Automatic Identification System switched on and was barred from scientific research in the Lankan waters, which meant that the ‘research’ equipment on the ship had to be shut down. Lastly, no Chinese crew was allowed to disembark. In other words, Colombo took care of the security concerns as far as it could. For now, as the Indian Foreign Office said, Sri Lanka needs support, not unwanted pressure or unnecessary controversies to serve another country’s agenda.
