In August 2023, China was reported to have requested Sri Lanka to grant permission to dock its research ship ‘Shi Yan 6’ to dock in its Colombo port and carry out research activities like oceanography, marine geology and marine ecology tests. This has renewed security concerns for India because India is suspicious that this research ship is actually a spy ship sent by China to carry out intelligence gathering activities in India’s southern coastal areas which contain vital areas and points like missile and satellite launch centers, naval bases, shipbuilding areas, space application centers etc. Experts are also worried that this spy ship will try to collect vital information of India’s submarine activities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Hence it’s important to formulate strategies to deal with such threats as its now felt that such Chinese port calls to Sri Lanka will increase in near future as cash strapped Sri Lanka will be under the influence of China in one way or the other as China holds around 52 percent of Sri Lankas’s external debt and it has leased its Hambantota port to China for a period of 99 years. Hence India should expect such frequent spy ship visits to increase in future.
Sri Lanka caught in between Indo-China rivalry
Last year in 2022, Sri Lanka was caught in between similar tensions of India and China when a satellite and ballistic missile tracking vessel, ‘Yuan Wang 5’ made a similar port call in Hambantota. Similarly, in August 2023, another Chinese PLAN warship, ‘Hai Yang 24 Hao’ having surveillance capabilities, docked at Colombo for a two-day visit. It’s surprising to note here that such port visits by China to Sri Lanka is being allowed despite the harsh fact that China’s huge debts were largely responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022. On top of that India has provided considerable financial assistance to Colombo to deal with its economic crisis. Here its being felt that Sri Lanka is repeatedly ignoring India’s genuine security concerns.
On the other hand, one can also sense how China is using a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 5 years which was signed on 25 May 2017, between China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for Education and Research and the Chinese Academy of Science to extend its research related activities in the IOR. In Sri Lanka, 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 including from China. The abovementioned MoU lapsed this year 2023. One would have expected Sri Lanka to terminate this MoU keeping in view the goodwill extended by India during its testing times, and instead choose any other reliable partner country for its ocean research related activities.
But unfortunately Sri Lanka decided to extend this MoU to include term that 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.” Hence this MoU gives China the authority to carry out activities related to geophysical exploration, study oceanography, marine geology and ecology in addition to gathering samples that can be analyzed at land-based laboratories. Hence if this MoU as reported is extended for another 5 years, then here there is nothing much India can do apart from cautioning Sri Lankan leadership to warn about India’s security concerns which will prove to be futile.
Empty promises offered by Sri Lanka
Despite India’s repeated requests right from the beginning in this matter, what Sri Lanka has done this time is again give false hopes to India that it will not permit any activities that will undermine India’s security. On 25 September 2023, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said that Sri Lanka has not given permission to ‘Shi Yan 6’ to dock in Colombo. He said that Colombo has not given permission to dock the Chinese vessel in the month of October. What’s conflicting here in this statement is that Sri Lanka has not given permission for the date requested by China, but is now looking for negotiating on other dates to allow the vessel to dock. This is also confirmed by the fact that Media Director of the Ministry of Defense Colonel Nalin Herath said that the permission of the Ministry of Defense has been given for the ship in question based on a request made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NARA. He said the NARA is scheduled to conduct research with the related Chinese research ship, and the date of the ship’s arrival in Sri Lanka has not yet been informed. Further if as per Sri Lanka’s Foreign minister, if Sri Lanka has really cancelled the permission to grant access to the Chinese vessel, which entered the IOR via Malacca Straits on 23 September with its recent current location being mid-ocean 90 East Ridge and heading towards Sri Lanka, then it would have headed back towards its home base. Also now it has come to the news that Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh decided to skip his visit to Sri Lanka, which was scheduled for August, following reports of the vessel’s approval to dock in Colombo. The reports were first published in August itself where the Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence has granted approval for the Chinese Research Survey Vessel Shi Yan 6 to dock at the ports of Sri Lanka. All these points to the fact that Sri Lanka is dishing out false promises to India as well as its western development partners to reduce its dependance on China.
Measures to counter spy ship activities
Given the fact that this ship will dock in Colombo port for a longer period of time, we have to look at what will capabilities it has. According to information available, this vessel is capable of carrying out investigations in geophysics, ocean physics, sea-air interaction, marine chemistry and other disciplines. It is also capable of surveying and sampling topography, landforms, currents, and biomes in extreme environments such as deep trenches. Samples that it collects in the ocean can be quickly processed and analyzed on site in vessel board laboratories, and data can be transmitted synchronously to land-based laboratories, allowing it to serve as an offshore mobile laboratory.
Here unlike the ‘Yuan Wang-5’ which was capable to track missiles and satellites, this vessel is designed more to study the aspects of underwater domain. It will try to study the physical processes like the motion and physical properties of ocean waters. This probably will give the researchers some idea how the underwater platforms like submarines, torpedoes, wave gliders etc. will function at different levels of depths. Therefore, this research vessel will collect vital information which can probably help Chinese navy to design more stealthy submarines, unmanned underwater vehicles, robotic vessels etc. which can do surveillance activities in the vicinity of the Indian coastal regions. This will greatly undermine India’s security interests. It will be crucial to prevent the such research activities. It’s known that these vessels are more focused on speed, and often neglect the disturbance of air bubbles on acoustic equipment on the bottom of the vessel, which will cause the equipment to fail in more extreme sea conditions. Therefore India should take steps to use this vulnerability of these research vessels to prevent them from collecting accurate data by creating disturbances in of air bubbles underwater to at least stop them from achieving their research goals near India’s vicinity.
Secondly, the Sri Lankan Standard Operating procedure (SOP) for foreign vessels stipulates the kind of vessels and aircraft allowed in Sri Lankan territory, the number of days to stay in the country and the type of activities allowed to be undertaken. India should deploy scientific equipment to detect such activities and if India does find any concerning activities, it should immediately take actions to inform Sri Lankan leadership about such breach in violation of its SOP, since China is known to violate treaties and SOP’s. Its amply clear from the above analysis that this Chinese spy ship visit is a serious concern for India. It’s time for India to take measured counter measures and let the Sri Lankans know that broken promises are not what India expects from its good neighbours.
Author: Ajay Kumar Das, Pursuing Masters in International Relations, Security & Strategy, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana, India.