India has declined China’s request for permission to allow four of its warships to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 airliner near the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
Indian officials on Thursday said China’s request to allow its four warships - including two frigates and a salvage vessel - to enter Indian territorial waters has been “politely turned down” since Indian warships and aircraft are already searching the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea around the 572-island cluster, The Times of India reported.
This came after the Indian forces strongly opposed the entry of the Chinese warships anywhere near the strategically-located Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where military force-levels are being slowly bolstered with an eye firmly on China.
”The Andaman and Nicobar command is our military outpost in the region, which overlooks the Malacca Strait and dominates the Six-Degree Channel. We don’t want Chinese warships sniffing around in the area on the pretext of hunting for the missing jetliner or anti-piracy patrols,” the daily reported, quoting an unnamed official as saying.
An Indian P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance plane and a C-130J special operations aircraft, with electro-optic and infra-red sensors, meanwhile, will fly to Malaysia on Friday morning to join the international search force there.
The new region off Australia is now on everyone’s radar screens after two objects, which could be debris from the missing Malaysian Airlines 777-200ER aircraft, were spotted floating there by a satellite on Thursday.
“Indian Navy already has four warships (INS Satpura, Sahyadari, Saryu and Batti Malv) deployed in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea in continuation of the search for the jetliner. Extensive air searches are also being conducted with three aircraft (P-8I, C-130J and Dornier-228) in the area,” said an officer.
China is also dispatching two aircraft to Malaysia to join the international search force that is now scanning the southern Indian Ocean off Australia for the missing MH370 jetliner. (Bernama)
