Sri Lanka denies presence of Chinese spy ship

2011-09-04 (China Military News cited from truthdive.com)

"We have not found any suspicious equipment on board any Chinese vessels at Colombo port in the recent past as claimed by some media," Navy Spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said.

A  Chinese ship that was on a scientific mission was spotted by radars in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy ship that tailed it detected that had as many as 22 laboratories on board.

The  Indian Navy  sources said the Chinese ship had specific aims to map the Indian Ocean and collect Bathymetric data, which helps in submarine and aircraft carrier based operations.The labs on board the ship are also believed to have been used to collect data on Ocean currents, the temperature at various depths and also underwater obstructions and obstacles. This information becomes crucial if one has to use torpedoes.

The Chinese ship was on International waters and hence the Indian naval ship could only tail it till it entered Sri Lankan waters and moved towards Colombo port. The increasing defence ties between SL and China has been cause of worry for Indian defence authorities. India had voiced its concern over Chinese effort to conduct scientific tests in the Indian Ocean. The ship was detected near the coast of Little Andaman. It is believed that the ship had spent more than 20 days in the sensitive location before Indian radars could locate .

Indian Naval authorities feel that it could have been used to monitor the movement of ships in the region.China's naval service is ranked second in the world while Indian Navy is ranked fourth largest . It has at any given time 55,000 marines on active and 1200 commandos.