ECONOMYNEXT – The Sri Lankan government has not decided on allowing a United Nation-flagged research vessel into the island nation’s water, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said, amid repeated requests from the UN and top officials meeting the Minister.
The UN has already said Sri Lanka will be deprived of key benefits in marine ecosystem research by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) due to the government’s delay in formulating standard operating procedures (SOP) to handle foreign research vessels.
“(We) did not take (a) final decision. Process is going on,” Foreign Minister Herath told EconomyNext when asked if the Sri Lankan government has rejected the UN request.
Sources aware of the research vessel have told the EconomyNext that the “Dr Fridtj of Nansen” (F. Nansen), a state-of-the-art vessel is now docked in Mauritius and Sri Lankan scientists are expected to be onboard before it sails to Colombo for marine ecosystem research from July 15-August 20 on the request of previous Sri Lankan government.
Once it finishes research in Sri Lanka, it is scheduled to sail Dhaka and Bangladesh scientists are expected to get into the vessel while it is in Colombo.
“The Foreign Ministry is fine with Bangladeshi scientists using Colombo port to get on board, but it has not so far agreed to allow the vessel for research purposes,” a source who is aware of the discussion between the UN and the government said.
A Foreign Ministry official said: “until the SOP is formulated there is no way to accommodate the request”.
The official also said a committee has been formed as of now to look into the SOP and the “first meeting will be convened soon”.
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.
The government has not allowed 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’s one-year moratorium over foreign research vessels ended in December last year.
That moratorium was imposed by Sri Lanka’s previous government 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.
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.
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)
