Sri Lanka seeks Chinese ship delay after Indian pressure

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has asked China to indefinitely delay a visit by a ship reported by Indian media to be a spy vessel, following intense pressure by the island's northern neighbour, official sources said today. The Yuan Wang 5 is en route from the Chinese port of Jiangyin and due in the Chinese-run Sri Lankan port of Hambantota on Thursday, according to analytics website MarineTraffic. It is described as a research and survey vessel but Indian broadcaster CNN-News18 says it is a dual-use spy ship, employed for space and satellite tracking and with specific usage in intercontinental ballistic missile launches.