Days after Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India, a Chinese sub, Changzheng 2, has again docked at the Colombo port, sparking “enormous concerns” within the government about the intentions of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
As reported by Sunday TOI, Sri Lanka allowed the docking despite NSA Ajit Doval’s warning to Lankan defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa that any presence of a Chinese submarine in Sri Lanka would be unacceptable to India. The government is now left with no option but to look upon Lanka’s defiance as “inimical” to India’s interests.
Changzheng 2, along with warship Chang Xing Dao, is likely to remain in Colombo until Wednesday. While this is only the second time a Chinese sub has stopped off Colombo (the first coincided with President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Vietnam in September), Xinhua on Monday quoted some Chinese officials who said that the docking was “an international common practice.”
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