DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: China is building a military base for the armed forces of Afghanistan in the Badakhshan province, and this will inevitably entail, among other things, deepening the military-political and economic interaction of Beijing with Dushanbe.
The way from China to a new base in Afghanistan lies exclusively through Tajikistan.
To build and operate a new military base in the north-east of Afghanistan, the Chinese side intends to provide everything needed including weapons. Such an initiative is due, first of all, to the increased activity of militants along the Tajik-Afghan border, the length of which is about 1,400 kilometers.
The draft military base was developed in late 2017, during the visit of the delegation of Afghanistan to Beijing.
To successfully implement these plans, Tajikistan can provide the most convenient way of supply from China to the Afghan province of Badakhshan (where there is impassable for transportation 76-kilometer stretch of the border with China).
Tajikistan and China are equally interested in reducing the terrorist threat in Afghanistan, so in the autumn of 2016 they signed an agreement on strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border. Then the Iranian media, referring to the Commander of the Tajik Border Forces Saymumin Yatimova, said that China will build three military commissariats, four military units, four headquarters and a training base for border troops in the border areas of Tajikistan.
In addition, Beijing fears that Chinese Uighurs, now in the ranks of Afghan terrorists, can return home and become a problem for the authorities of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
