New Delhi – The Indian Navy has tracked down seven Chinese warshipsoperating in and around Indian waters using its anti-submarine warfare spyplanes and other surveillance assets.
In photographs taken by P-8I, an anti-submarine warfare and long-rangesurveillance aircraft, the warship Chinese Landing Platform Dock Xian-32was seen crossing through the Southern Indian Ocean before it moved intoSri Lankan waters earlier this month, Sputnik has reported.
“They are being constantly monitored during their presence in the IndianOcean when they pass closer to Indian exclusive economic zone andterritorial waters,” Indian news agency ANI reported, citing an unnamedsource.
The sources speculated that the main aim of the Chinese navy appears to beboth to project power and to boost China’s presence along key trade routes.
The reports of a growing Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean comedays after the armies of India and China were involved in a skirmish at theLine of Actual Control (LAC)link-a demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory fromChinese-controlled territory in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
China opposed New Delhi’s decision to declare Ladakh a separateadministrative territory, and has asked India to rethink its decision.
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But the Indian Foreign Ministry has said that the change to Ladakh’s statuswould not impact on the Line of Actual Control – a loosely demarcated linethat divides the two Asian giants.
Furthering speculation the relations between the two countries haveworsened following the Ladakh decision, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yilinkcancelleda visit to New Delhi scheduled for 9 September, where he was supposed tohold special representative-level talks on the boundary question withIndia’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Indian Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh, in July, said that India ismonitoring the progress of the Chinese navy-which has been displaying itsassertiveness with the deployment of at least six to eight warships,including submarines, at any given moment.
