Amid concerns over a visit by Chinese 💞ship 'Yuan Wang 5' to his country, Sri Lanka's tourism minister Harin Fernado said in Gujarat’s ൲Ahmedabad on Saturday that he hoped it would not cause a major diplomatic row as India understands its situation.
In Ahmedabad to promote tourism in the island nation, Fernado said China has made a lot of investment in 🐓Sri Lanka and has been "understanding its requirements in the past."ꦜ;
Indian au💟thorities h🎐ave expressed worries about the ship's snooping capability.
"Sri Lanka is a small country, and Sri Lanka has very good friendship with everyone. I amꦅ sure India understands that. We have a very good diplomatic relationship with India," the🎃 visiting minister said, replying to a question.
Indi💫an authorities consider the vessel to be a `dual-use spy ship'.
Fernado said Sri Lanka's President Ra🙈nil Vickremesinghe and its foreign mi💃nister were in constant touch with Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"I think they un𝄹derstand our situ♊ation," he said.
"There is a lot of investment by the Chinese in Sri Lanka and they have also been quite understanding of our requirements ไin the past. So I am quite hopeful this is not a major diplomatic issue. This could b𝄹e looked into," he further said.
The Chinese ballistic missile and satellite trackinౠg ship is berthed at Sri Lanka's southern port of Hambantota and will remain docked at the Chinese-run♋ port till August 22.
On August 13, the Sri Lankan government granted port access to the vessel from August 16 to 22 on condition that it will keep🐠 the Automatic Identification System (AIS) switched on within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country and no scientific research would be conducted in its waters.
India flagged the ship's technical ꦯcapability and expressed worries abou🧜t the purpose of its visit. New Delhi was concerned about the possibility of the ship's tracking systems attempting to snoop on Indian installations.
(With PTI inputs)
