Chinese and Indian warships visit Sri Lanka at the same time, Indian media hypes "game"
2024-08-28
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
According to a report by the Times of India on the 27th, warships from both China and India visited Sri Lanka on the 26th and docked at the port of Colombo. The report hyped that the two countries are playing a "big game" to gain strategic influence in the "Indian Ocean Region" (IOR). Experts interviewed by the Global Times said that this argument exposes India's underlying idea that "the Indian Ocean is India's ocean."
According to reports, on the morning of the 26th, the Indian Navy's "Mumbai" missile destroyer arrived and docked at the Colombo Port, and three Chinese warships also arrived at the port that morning. The Indian "Economic Times" quoted the Sri Lankan Navy as saying that the "Mumbai" will pay a three-day visit to Sri Lanka. Indian officials said that this is the first visit of the "Mumbai" to Sri Lanka. Its mission includes delivering spare parts for the "Dornier" maritime patrol aircraft to the Sri Lankan Air Force, providing training for the crew of the "Dornier", and aircraft maintenance. In 2023 and 2022, India handed over the "Dornier" maritime patrol aircraft to Sri Lanka twice. According to the plan, the "Mumbai" will leave the Colombo Port on the 29th of this month and conduct navigation exercises with a Sri Lankan warship.
According to a message released by the WeChat public account "People's Navy" on the 27th, the Chinese naval fleet (consisting of the integrated landing ships Wuzhishan, Qilianshan and the missile destroyer Hefei) that concluded the "Peace and Unity-2024" joint exercise arrived at the Colombo Port in Sri Lanka on August 26 local time for a technical stop for a three-day replenishment and rest. The Chinese fleet officers and soldiers will also carry out professional exchanges, joint exercises and training, cultural and sports exchanges and other activities with the Sri Lankan naval officers and soldiers.
Indian media exaggerated that the Chinese warships' docking has caused "waves" in the surrounding areas. An Indian defense official said that Chinese warships, including anti-piracy escort fleets, now stay in the Indian Ocean region much longer than before. The Times of India said that New Delhi "clearly does not welcome" Chinese warships to dock in Colombo, and China has been steadily strengthening its "underwater domain awareness" in the Indian Ocean region. India has protested against Sri Lanka for allowing Chinese warships and scientific research vessels to dock.
Lin Minwang, a researcher at the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on the 27th that India inherited the strategic thinking of the British Empire that the Indian Ocean was its own "inland lake". It viewed other countries' activities in the Indian Ocean from the subconscious perspective that "the Indian Ocean is India's ocean". Therefore, it interpreted the docking of Chinese ships as the so-called geopolitical competition between China and India in the Indian Ocean. In fact, this kind of thinking lacks openness and inclusiveness, and has hindered the construction of security mechanisms in the Indian Ocean and economic cooperation among Indian Ocean countries. Lin Minwang said: "As long as it complies with international law, any country's behavior in the Indian Ocean is acceptable."
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense said in 2022 that "similar ships from India, China, Japan, Australia and other countries regularly dock here, which is normal."▲#Deep Good Articles Project#
