The Indonesian Coast Guard (ICG) stopped a Male-bound Chinese research vessel as it had turned off its automated information system, Maldives-based Adhadhu reported on Sunday. The Indonesian authority’s move came after the ship, while traveling through the country’s waters, turned off the transponder three times between January 8 and 12.
The US Naval Institute said the Chinese government vessel “XIANG YANG HONG 03” was stopped by the ICG on January 11 in the Sunda Strait area, the report said, adding that the crew on the vessel denied turning off the transponder and claimed that it was broken.
The automatic identification systems transponders are designed to be capable of providing position, identification, and other information about the ship to other ships and coastal authorities automatically.
The ICG did not attempt to board the Chinese ship but asked it to leave the country’s exclusive economic zone, reported The Asia Times. As per international maritime law, all vessels navigating the archipelagic sea lanes in Indonesian waters are required to have working transponders.
Adhadhu reported that sites that track marine traffic showed the vessel’s location on January 22 in the Java Sea and its present location was unknown.
Earlier this month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a paper titled: “China’s Dual-Use Research Operations in the Indian Ocean. The paper mentions that China’s vessels go dark for some hours or days while near PLA installations.
“Behavior at sea can also raise red flags. Repeated instances of “spoofing” (providing falsified identification information) or “going dark” (turning off automatic identification system signals for extended periods) are important warning signs. Data from Windward indicates these activities occur frequently—sometimes near foreign military facilities,” the paper states.
The paper also says that to survey the Earth’s oceans, China has developed the world’s largest fleet of civilian research vessels. While these ships support scientific and commercial objectives, it adds, they are also being used to advance Beijing’s strategic ambitions. Hidden Reach, a special initiative of CSIS, identified 64 active research and survey vessels. Of the 64 active vessels, over 80 per cent have demonstrated suspect behavior, the paper states.
On January 22, weeks after Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu returned from China, Damien Symon, an open-source intelligence researcher, said China’s research vessel – XIANG YANG HONG 03 – was heading towards Male.
Just a day after this, the Maldives Foreign Ministry confirmed the development but said the Chinese vessel would not conduct research in Maldivian territory. However, India’s geostrategist Brahma Chellaney said Male’s claim that the ship won’t conduct any research was “laughable”.
“The Muizzu government claim that the PLA-linked ship would not conduct oceanographic research in the Maldivian waters is laughable as the Maldives has zero capability to detect such activity,” the geostrategist said.
Chellaney said China is aggressively engaged in mapping the Indian Ocean bed and collecting seismic and bathymetric data to facilitate submarine operations in India’s maritime backyard. “And the Maldives, under its new Islamist-leaning, pro-China president, is becoming an enabler,” he said.
Maldives to Buy Turkish Drones
The Maldives under pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu has signed a deal with Turkey to buy drones to patrol its exclusive economic zone waters. So far, New Delhi and Male jointly patrolled this region in the Indian Ocean.
Maldives-based Adhadhu on Tuesday reported that Male had signed an agreement with a Turkish company to purchase military drones to patrol the country’s waters. It has allocated $37 million from the state’s contingency budget to the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).
The deal comes just days after the Maldives asked India to withdraw its troops stationed there by March 15. New Delhi has 88 or so military personnel in the Maldives to operate and maintain India-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft, including the Dornier plane and two Dhruv helicopters gifted to Male over the past decade.
India enjoyed a good relationship with Male during Mohamed Nasheed’s presidency from 2008 to 2013 and then Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s stint from 2018 to 2023. From 2013 to 2018, Abdulla Yameen, who was also pro-China, ruled the island country.
In 2018, once Yameen was replaced by Solih, the Indian Navy deployed an offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) – Sumedha – to carry out surveillance of the exclusive economic waters of Maldives with the Maldivian military. The elite Marine commandos of the Indian Navy were in Maldives to train the Maldivian military on asymmetric warfare.
However, equations have changed under Muizzu, who came to power on the plank of the ‘India-out’ campaign. Muizzu, who assumed power in November 2023, has so far made two foreign visits – Turkey and China. His five-day visit to China last week was also seen as a snub to New Delhi as the tradition so far was that the Maldivian always visited India before Beijing.
The relationship also deteriorated after three Maldivian deputy ministers made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his visit to the Indian islands of Lakshadweep earlier this month.
For decades, India and China have been competing with each other for influence in Maldives, which is a few hundred nautical miles from Kerala and whose strategic location makes it important for both Asian powers.
On January 13, in an apparent reference to India, Muizzu said that the Maldives was not located in the backyard of any country. “Even though our islands are small, we are a huge country with a very large exclusive economic zone of nine lakh square kilometers,” he said. “Maldives is one country that holds the largest proportion of this ocean. This ocean is not the property of a specific country.”
Muizzu then said that Maldives had begun the work to build its power and capacity to do continuous surveillance of the nine lakh square kilometer exclusive economic zone. “Hopefully, soon we will establish our capacity to manage this vast area.”