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

Chinese research ship near Maldives raises concerns; India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives conduct trilateral naval exercise.

A 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.

“Chinese research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 03 was moored close to Male City this morning. Around noon, the ship was shown to be near Thilafushi,” news portal Edition.mv reported, quoting the Marine Traffic website that tracks all ocean liners across the globe.

“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.” An analysis by Adhadhu using satellite AIS tracking showed that the Chinese vessel was later at the EEZ of Maldives, the report said, adding, “The vessel had spent about a month near the EEZ.”