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BEIJING: As China’s military expands its worldwide reach, ships transporting people for the country’s first overseas military installation, in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, have left port to start building up the facility.
Due to Djibouti’s location on the northern tip of the Indian Ocean, India has been concerned that it may join Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka in China’s “string of pearls” of military ties and assets encircling India.
In Djibouti, China started constructing a logistical base last year. It will be used to replenish naval ships engaged in humanitarian and peacekeeping activities, particularly off the shores of Yemen and Somalia.
Though Beijing officially refers to it as a logistical facility, it will be China’s first navy station abroad.
The ships left Zhanjiang in southern China late on Tuesday, according to the official news agency Xinhua, “to set up a support base in Djibouti.”
Although the news agency did not provide a start date, Navy Commander Shen Jinlong “read an order on building the base in Djibouti.”
According to Xinhua, the two nations decided to create the facility following “friendly negotiations” and in accordance with the interests of the people on stated.
The facility will allow China to “new and greater contributions” to peace in Africa and the globe and would help Djibouti’s economic growth, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang during a regular press conference.
On the way to the Suez Canal, Djibouti, which is approximately the size of Wales, is located at the southern Red Sea entrance. US, Japanese, and French bases are located in the small, arid country that is situated between Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.
The facility, according to a front-page article in The People’s Liberation Army Daily, is a landmark that will strengthen China’s ability to maintain international peace, particularly given that Beijing has so many UN forces in Africa and is actively engaged in anti-piracy patrols.
No matter what happened, the journal claimed, China will not pursue military expansionism or engage in weapons competitions. These commitments, it stated, “will not change as a result of the development of the overseas logistics base.”
