Moratorium on foreign research vessels intact: Lankan FM

Sri Lanka's foreign minister Ali Sabry rejected reports that the country had decided to end the moratorium on foreign scientific research survey vessels surveying in Sri Lankan waters and its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that would have once again enabled Chinese "spy ships" to enter waters close to the Indian coast.

News reports from Japan earlier quoted Sabry saying Sri Lanka would end the moratorium.

Sabry was on a visit to Tokyo recently.


However, Sabry claimed on Sunday that reports had misquoted the essence of what he said in an interview in Tokyo and that no decision had been made by the government regarding the moratorium, which was introduced for 2024.

"This is misquoting - the essence of it. Right now, we have a moratorium till the end of the year," Sabry told Sri Lankan newspaper The Daily Morning. "We will assess the situation at the end of the year and then decide whether to continue the moratorium or lift it, in that there is a possibility of lifting it. However, it all depends on us and our institutions building sovereign capacity for such surveys."

The foreign minister said, "Of course, as a nation that aspires to become a regional and global maritime hub, we are duty-bound to respect and recognise our obligations in terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to provide facilities for port call and replenishment. Naturally, being a neutral and non-aligned country we cannot have different rules for different countries, and thus China will also have equal opportunities just like any other country."