The Chinese marine research, satellite tv for pc and ballistic missile vessel, Yuan Wang five, is presently mapping Indian ocean mattress 2000 kilometers (1100 nautical miles) south of Sri Lanka giving upward thrust to the opportunity of Beijing exploring a brand new sea path to Africa’s jap seaboard with the aid of using bypassing contested Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok Straits.
According to to be had information, the 11000-ton vessel is transferring deep into the Indian Ocean and could continue closer to its homeport Shanghai through the Ombai-Wetar Straits close to East Timor and north of Australia.
The strategic deliver has emerge as a bone of competition among India and China after the previous voiced its worries over the vessel being allowed to berth at Hambantota port with the aid of using the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime.
The Hambantota Port became leased to China for ninety nine years in 2017 with the aid of using the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a debt for fairness change as Sri Lanka had defaulted at the Chinese loan. The vessel left Hambantota on August 22 after Sri Lankans replenished the deliver with food, diesel, oil, and lubricants.
With Malacca, Sunda and Lombok Straits of Indonesia all monitored with the aid of using India via ships and Predator UAVs as they’re in near proximity to Andamans and Nicobar Islands, naval professionals consider that Yuan Wang five can be charting a brand new path to East Africa that doesn’t permit the Indian Navy to workout leverage on Chinese ships.
The new path will absolutely keep away from the shortest sea lanes of conversation from South China sea to Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden and take an extended path via Ombai Wetar Straits.
The new path will permit Chinese ships unhindered get right of entry to to jap seaboard of Africa, in which Beijing has closely invested below the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and has additionally hooked up a base in Djibouti. The new path may be deep south of Sri Lanka and could permit clean get right of entry to to Chinese ships to ports like Mombasa in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
The ocean mattress mapping additionally allows in anti-submarine operations because the equatorial waters are complex because of vast variations among the floor and sub-floor temperatures.
