China has denied Indian media reports alleging that a marine observatory backed by Chinese capital and technologies in Maldives had a covert military agenda, jeering that such hysteria stemmed from jealousy of Chinese friendship with South Asian countries. Marine cooperation with the Maldives carries no military purpose or none whatsoever, said Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Indian media reported the maritime observation facility could be a disguised submarine base for the Chinese navy. The station in Makunudhoo, in the north of the Maldivian archipelago and separated by a waterway off the Indian State of Kerala on the Malabar Coast, gives China a vantage point on a vital Indian Ocean shipping route, according to the Times of India.
Refuting claims of Indian media, Chinese Foreign Ministry noted the two countries would accelerate the plan to build the station to observe the climate and the ocean, and deepen cooperation in marine ecology preservation, prevention of marine disasters and marine scientific research. The Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated that there are no military purposes.
China and Maldives signed a protocol on the construction of a joint ocean observation station for climate research and preservation of marine ecology when President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom visited China in December 2017.
From 2015 to 2017, China and Maldives conducted two phases of joint marine investigations in waters surrounding the islands, which provided data about Indian Ocean climate change and monsoons.