The proposed radar will also be able to track US military activities in Diego Garcia. The Aerospace Information Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences could be involved in this project in the jungles near Dondra Bay of Sri Lanka, ET has learnt.
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China's Sri Lanka radar plan likely to threaten India's strategic assets
Synopsis
The proposed radar will also be able to track US military activities in Diego Garcia. The Aerospace Information Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences could be involved in this project in the jungles near Dondra Bay of Sri Lanka, ET has learnt.
China is considering setting up a radar base in
Sri Lanka to monitor
India's presence in the Indian Ocean Region and the activities of the
Indian Navy, besides strategic assets in the Southern part of the country, including
Kudankulam and
Kalpakkam nuclear power plants.
The proposed radar will also be able to track US military activities in Diego Garcia. The
Aerospace Information Research of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences could be involved in this project in the jungles near Dondra Bay of Sri Lanka, ET has learnt.
The radar, if set up, will be detrimental to India's strategic interests across the region and India's strategic installations in the Southern part of the country will be within the range of the radar, according to persons familiar with the matter.
The radar, it is feared, can track movement of Indian Navy vessels travelling to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also fears that radar can monitor Kudankulam and Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plants and refuelling in these facilities, ET has learnt.
Lanka remains critical to Beijing's ambitions in the Southern Indian Ocean and Colombo is vulnerable to Beijing's requests given its debt, sources said. Dondra Bay is located at the Southern-most tip of Sri Lanka. Dondra has significance in Lankan history and was once the capital of the island nation.
Chinese lease of
Hambantota Port for 99 years and visit by a
PLA spy ship last year that has adverse implications for India's interests in the region has been closely monitored by the Indian establishment.
Last year Chinese spy ship Yuan Wang 5 docked at the Hambantota Port with Colombo caving into Chinese pressure. The ship was allowed on the condition that it did not carry out research while in Lankan waters and it kept the Automatic Identification System switched on, ET had then reported.
After intense negotiations, Sri Lanka permitted the vessel to dock at Hambantota and remain for six days for refuelling and taking in other supplies.
The Hambantota port has been run by the Chinese since 2017, when they took it on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion. Earlier $1.4 billion was paid by Sri Lanka to a Chinese firm to build the port.
"From time to time, Sri Lankan governments have been making rhetoric about their foreign policy stances such as 'non-alignment', 'neutrality', and 'India First.' Also, they have occasionally said that we do not want to intervene in the power struggles of superpowers. However, the news that China is planning to set up a radar base has raised serious questions about Sri Lanka's foreign policy," said A. Jathindra, a Sri Lanka-based independent political analyst and head of a think tank,
Centre for Strategic Studies, Trincomalee.
India has been suspicious of Beijing's increasing presence in the Indian Ocean Region.
