Chinese research ship moors near Maldives after spending a month in Indian Ocean

high-tech Chinese marine research ship on Thursday arrived near the Maldives after spending about a month in the Indian Ocean near the island nation, media reports said here.

The ship, ‘Xiang Yang Hong 03’ reached the Maldives on the same day when Indian and Sri Lankan coast guard ships reached the strategically located archipelago for a trilateral naval exercise. India had already expressed concern about the movement of the Chinese research ship in the Indian Ocean and also prevailed on Sri Lanka to refuse permission for the ship to dock at the Colombo port.

“Xiang Yang Hong 03 began its journey on January 14, 24 hours after Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu concluded his state visit to China. It arrived near Male’ today after spending about a month near the Maldives’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” said Adhadhu.com, a news portal.

It also claimed that the vessel was “not visible on common tracking sites starting from January 22. It is believed that the vessel’s tracking systems had been turned off when it was in the Java Sea off Indonesia then.”

On January 23, the Maldives government permitted the research vessel. But while the Maldivian foreign ministry said the Chinese Research Vessel Xiang Yang Hong 3 will “not be conducting any research while in the Maldivian waters,” sources in the Indian defence establishment had indicated that New Delhi was keeping a close watch on the movement of the ship.

Earlier on January 5, Sri Lanka, while denying entry to the Chinese ship, had said it had declared a moratorium on foreign research ships entering its waters for a year amid concerns from India over Chinese research vessels docking

in its neighbourhood.