ECONOMYNEXT –Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has given special approval for a United Nation-flagged research vessel into the island nation’s water to conduct research, a Foreign Ministry official said, after repeated requests from the UN.
However, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which is responsible for the research has raised doubts if the ship could be scheduled as originally decided due to delay in the Sri Lankan government’s decision.
The approval for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) research vessel “Dr Fridtj of Nansen” was not given due to the government’s delay in formulating standard operating procedures (SOP) to handle foreign research vessels.
“The President has given a special approval for the UN ship because there is a lot of Sri Lankan interest on this,” a Foreign Ministry official told EconomyNext.
“But still the committee has not come up with the SOP and it is still in the process.”
Sources aware of the research vessel told the EconomyNext that the “Dr Fridtj of Nansen” (F. Nansen), a state-of-the-art vessel may no longer be available for the research involved with fish stock and the health of marine ecosystem in Sri Lankan water because Sri Lanka originally rejected the request last week.
“The ship might still come to get Bangladesh scientists on board for a similar research in Bangladesh as scheduled earlier,” one of the sources said, adding that the FAO is trying to accommodate the Sri Lankan request after the delayed approval.
Sri Lankan scientists were expected to be onboard last week in Mauritius before it sails to Colombo for marine ecosystem research from July 15-August 20 on the request of the previous Sri Lankan government.
As per original plan, it is scheduled to sail Dhaka and Bangladesh scientists are expected to get into the vessel while it is in Colombo after it finishes research in Sri Lanka,
The government did not allow the UN research vessel “pending the development of standard operating procedures for foreign research vessels”, a UN document said.
The cancellation of the visit would incur direct losses of over $1 million to Sri Lanka through the FAO and likely to reduce the efficacy of upcoming programming financed by the Green Climate Fund which would heavily rely on the data generated by the F. Nansen,” the document said.
If the current visit is cancelled, another would not be feasible until after 2030.
Cancelling the UN research vessel’s visit would deprive the country of critical data essential to the government’s decision making, damaging the prospects for economic development in a key sector of the economy, the UN has said.
The UN said the vessel is equipped to support Sri Lanka in the sustainable management of marine ecosystems and aquatic resources, in line with the request expressed by the Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lanka imposed a one-year moratorium over foreign research vessels amid pressure by India and the United States over Chinese vessels coming for research purposes.
Both the US and India have pressed Sri Lanka after two Chinese research vessels came to the island nation within 14 months.
The moratorium ended on Dec. 31, 2024, but President Anura Kumara Dissanayake government’s cabinet in January decided to appoint a new committee to review the existing SOP and come up with a new SOP to facilitate foreign research ships.
The government appointed the committee to look into the SOP only last week and the first meeting was held on Thursday (19).
The FAO has coordinated the deployment of the “Dr Fridtj of Nansen” vessel to Sri Lanka following a November 2023 request from the previous Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lanka is facing diplomatic challenges in allowing foreign research vessels within its waters due to geopolitical issues related to India and China.
Sri Lanka and China have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on maritime cooperation amid Indian concerns over Chinese research ships visiting the Indian Ocean.
In April, Sri Lanka signed a Defence Cooperation MOU which said both neighbour countries will exchange information in maritime and other domains on mutual consent without elaborating.
Foreign Minister Herath in January said Sri Lanka does not have to take approval from India or inform the neighbour on visit of any foreign vessels. Government officials have said some previous governments have maintained such practices to maintain better relationships with India. (Colombo/June 16/2025)
