The Chinese vessel Xiang Yang Hong 3 entered the territorial waters of the Maldives earlier this month ostensibly for what Beijing claimed will do research work. However, after India raised security concerns about this, the Maldives Foreign Ministry stated that the ship will not be allowed to do research work and would dock only for rotation of personnel and replenishments.
India had red-flagged both the Maldives and Sri Lanka in December last year about the entry of the vessel Xiang Yang Hong 3 into the waters of the south Indian Ocean. While Sri Lanka took into consideration India’s concerns and put a one-year moratorium on the entry of all foreign research vessels, the Maldives has gone ahead and permitted the vessel to enter its waters. This decision came despite pressure from the Indian government and concerns raised by various quarters about the vessel being a “spy vessel”. The vessel was earlier scheduled to start conducting “deep water exploration” in Sri Lankan waters at the beginning of this month.
It is worth mentioning here that India has strongly been protesting the repeated visits by Chinese vessels to the waters of the south Indian Ocean, a region New Delhi considers to be under its sphere of influence, ostensibly for research purposes.
However, the continued presence in the area of the Xiang Yang Hong 3, a vessel that was supposed to be visiting the Maldives only for the purposes of rotation of personnel and replenishments even as exercise Dosti 16 is starting is raising questions about maritime security in the region.
