China on Monday strongly defended the docking of its submarines at Colombo port as well as the high interests rates charged for its loans asserting that these were done at the instance of the previous government, brushing aside concerns expressed by new Sri lankan Foreign Minister. “We had the consent of the Sri lanka side in advance,” Foreign Ministry pokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters responding to Mangala Samaraweera’s comments that the new government will not permit the docking of Chinese submarines.
After reports that one of the Chinese submarines docked at the Colombo port during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year, the new Sri lankan government said it will not permit such dockings. “I really do not know what circumstances led to some submarines coming to the port of Colombo on the very day the Japanese Prime Minister was visiting Sri lanka,” Samaraweera had said here last week, disclosing for the first time that the docking coincided with Abe’s Colombo visit.
“But we will ensure that such incidents from whatever quarters does not happen during our tenure,” said Samaraweera, who held extensive talks with Chinese Premier li Keqiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Two submarines - one said to be nuclear powered - docked at the Colombo port last year during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, a move that raised concerns in India. Hua reiterated that Chinese submarines were on way to take part in the anti-piracy operations at the Gulf of Aden in Somalia through Sri lanka and used the ports for re-supply.