The Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday denied media reports that it was planning to engage in combat training with Pakistan. The Sri Lankan Navy has said that while the Pakistani warship is about to depart from Sri Lanka, it is only involved in routing the ship in the Western Sea.
It was recently reported that China’s ‘Yuan Wang-5’ spy ship is coming to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. The central government felt that the ship could pose a threat to India’s security and expressed its concern to the Sri Lankan government. Subsequently, the Sri Lankan government urged the country to postpone the arrival of the Chinese spy ship at Hambantota port.
Despite India’s insistence, the Sri Lankan government has now allowed the Chinese spy ship to visit.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s warship PNS Timur arrived at Sri Lanka’s Colombo port last Friday. Built by China, the ship is equipped with sophisticated weapons, sensor equipment and laser-guided missiles. The ship, which was engaged in combat training in Malaysia and Cambodia, traveled to Karachi in Pakistan. Permission was sought to dock the ship at Chattogram port in Bangladesh in between voyages. But the Bangladesh government did not allow the ship to stop. Subsequently, the Government of Sri Lanka gave permission to dock the ship at the port of Colombo.
While Sri Lanka has been displeased with India over the issue of the Chinese spy ship, it has been reported that the Pakistani navy personnel on the Pakistani ship are going to engage in combat training together with the Sri Lankan naval personnel.
In this situation, Sri Lanka has denied the information that it is going to engage in military training with Pakistan. The Sri Lanka Navy said in a statement released on Sunday:
Pakistan’s warship Taimur has arrived in Sri Lanka in a normal manner. As the ship is scheduled to depart on Monday (Aug. 15), Sri Lanka’s SLNS Cinderella will be involved in a transit exercise with it. Such joint exercises are conducted on a goodwill basis to exchange best practices with foreign navies. Sri Lanka has already conducted such navigation training with warships of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Germany, Britain, Russia and Australia. However, the Sri Lankan Navy has clarified that the media report that Sri Lanka is going to engage in military exercises with Pakistan warships is incorrect.