China is funding a major military infrastructure project on the border of Afghanistan for their neighbor Tajikistan, which has borne witness to some of the most severe effects of the Taliban militant group's attack on Afghanistan this year. Tajikistan lawmakers said on Wednesday that China has agreed to build the military base, which is said to be worth $10 million.
According to Breitbart, the Tajik officials reassured that the military base will belong to Tajikistan and not China, despite the communist state funding the multi-million dollar defense infrastructure. The military base is also set to house Tajik troops. The announcement has revived talks on how China has long been operating a military base in Tajikistan in secret, as confirmed by a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) report published this week citing leaked diplomatic exchanges.
Tajikistan demonstrated its largest-ever military exercises this year right before the Taliban pushed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani out of the country and took over Kabul. However, when Tajikistan expressed concern over the Taliban's rule and the aftermath of their take over, the CCP extended support to the terrorist organization, which no country recognizes as the official Afghan government today.
The lower chamber of Tajikistan's parliament said on Wednesday that China's Ministry of Public Security pledged to "construct and outfit the facility for Tajikistan's special rapid deployment police unit on the Tajik-Afghan border," as reported by the Tajik news network Asia Plus. First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Abdurahmon Alamshozoda, who confirmed the massive project, said that Tajikistan won't have control of the military infrastructure until China completes the "outfitting" of the military base.
However, Alamshozoda underscored how the finished military base will belong to the Tajik military, not China.
Another Tajik lawmaker by the name of Tolibkhon Azimzoda said on Wednesday that China and Tajikistan agreed to pursue the project "amid the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and growing security threats along the country's border."
Meanwhile, China has kept mum on the upcoming military base on the Afghanistan border for Tajikistan. Bloomberg reported that during a regular news briefing on Thursday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he was unaware of the reports about the project.
Since at least 2016, however, the Chinese military has been based in Tajikistan at an outpost located near Shaymak, which lies in Afghan territory and is called Wakhan or Vakhan Corridor. This narrow corridor strip borders China's Xinjiang region, where reports of human rights abuses agaisnt the Uyghur Muslim minorities have plaged China for years. A parliamentary spokesperson confirmed, however, that the new military installation will be located Gorno-Badakhshan province's Ishkashim district, which is located further up the corridor nearer to Kabul and just 20 kilometers away from Pakistan.
China isn't the only interested party in the move to secure Tajikistan's border. In September, the U.S. confirmed that they are building a guard post in Ayvoj for the 13th time since 2002. Meanwhile, Russia pledged to finance the construction of an outpost on the Afghan border, without disclosing the exact location. Russia also runs a military base inside Afghanistan that will receive 30 new tanks before the year ends.
