Sri Lanka gave permission for China ship Yuan Wang to enter into Indian Ocean from August 11th to 17th for replenishment, saying that they took permission prior. But this ship is suspected by India as it is having very advanced naval vessel with sophisticated parts that is capable of getting the military stations and nuclear power plants information of India. So India clarified that it will monitor the ship for security reasons very closely. There are certain valid reasons for this monitoring apart from security reasons such as
- Sri Lanka owes 1.4 billion dollars to Beijing for infrastructure projects.
- In 2017 after unable to repay the debt, Sri Lanka gave one of its port the main East-West international shipping lanes for lease to China for 99 years.
- There is a severe shortage of food, medicines and fuel in Sri Lanka from past two years because its government faced a run out on foreign exchange towards financial support on imports.
