◆India's neighbours to East go slow on Chinese support for defence & civilian sector ships
【New Delhi】India's immediate and extended neighbours—Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia—have decided to go slow on seeking China's support for their ships in both civilian and defence sectors.
The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the pace of China's shipbuilding industry over the last few months and Beijing's partners in South and Southeast Asia have decided to limit cooperation due to budget constraints, ET has reliably gathered. This could impact China's long-term strategic ambitions in the Bay of Bengal where India has been the traditional net security provider. Orders at China's shipyards fell 5.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, according to the country's ministry of industry and information technology. Further, production timelines are universally lagging across China. Co-location of military design institutes with the Wuchang Shipyard at Wuhan has directly affected naval projects also.