A Chinese Frigate

China plans to gift a Naval Frigate to Sri Lanka as part of their mutual military trust, a Chinese official said Tuesday.

Senior Colonel Xu Jianwei of the Chinese Embassy speaking at a reception held at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo today to mark the 91st Anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said,“this year China will continue to provide various training courses for the Sri Lankan tri-forces, to complete building a Chinese-funded auditorium complex at the Sri Lanka Military Academy, and make preparations to hand over a gift frigate to the Sri Lanka Navy,” ChinaMil reported Tuesday.

“China wishes to boost the development of Belt and Road initiative to strengthen the pragmatic cooperation between two countries and two militaries,” he added.

There are no details regarding which type of frigate would be given to China. The gifted frigate could help Sri Lanka in patrolling its maritime borders. China has considerable economic interests in Sri Lanka. It took control of a port and 15,000 acres of land around it in December last year.

The transfer gave China control of territory just a few hundred miles off the shores of India, and a strategic foothold along a critical commercial and military waterway.