China reached yet another milestone by establishing its first
ever military base, a logistics facility to service military vessels in the
horn of the Africa, Djibouti. In a major effort to assert its growing
international stature China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, who
championed to strengthen and expand its military reach across the globe
acquired the military base in Djibouti 4000 miles away from its land. By virtue
of its strategic geographic location, Djibouti with a population of 900,000 is
also home to the lone US military base in Africa. For several decades, China
proclaimed that establishing overseas military base is akin to seeking hegemony
and interference in internal affairs of other countries. Beijing maintained
that it will refrain from such activities. But last week, China signed 10 years
lease agreement to set up naval base Djibouti enabling it to gain access to
Persian Gulf.
China’s interests in Africa are augured by its aspirations of
gaining a vantage position in the Indian Ocean region. As a part of this
strategy, China spent millions of dollars in development of infrastructure in
Djibouti and even laid a rail road that connects it to Addis Ababa, the capital
of Ethiopia, a land locked country with numerous Chinese investment projects.
China is the largest trading partner of Africa with trade volume surpassing
$200 billion (thrice US-Africa trade).
Ever since occupying the high seat of power in November 2012,
President Xi had ambitiously envisaged to revamp its 2.3 million strong military
force. In a bid to overhaul the military and introduce reforms, he first
launched an intense campaign against corruption and subsequently enhanced
military budget which according to Congressional research service study is
about $ 145 billion. All the while China has been highly critical of America’s
approach of establishing overseas military bases. But now it is busy defending
its own position under the pretext of safeguarding its navigational freedom and
aiding in crucial antipiracy operations. Though China frequently bespeaks of
its peaceful rise and lack of expansionist attitude its unquenchable thirst of
building overseas military installations reminds of typical US style of naval
suffusion.
US in the meanwhile is concerned as the new base is quite
close to its Camp Lemonnier base home to 4000 armed personnel that carries out counter terrorism operations.
US has recently extended its lease for 20 years with Djibouti. France too has a
base in Djibouti and Japan which participates in UN antipiracy operations also
stations its surveillance aircrafts and personnel there. Djibouti also hosts
Pakistan and Italian military troops.
Djibouti the former French colony near Gulf of Aden has
become hot-bed for overseas military installations firstly for its stable
regime in the relatively volatile African East Coast and for its geographical
location. It lies on the Bab el-Mandeb Straits, a gateway to Red Sea and Suez
Canal, one of the busiest shipping routes. It is less than 20 miles away from
the war ravaged Yemen and acts as an ideal base for international operations. China
sealed an agreement to pay $100 million as annual rent for using Djibouti base,
where 700 troops were stationed to protect its oil interests in South Sudan
(1).
China steadily entered the Indian Ocean region under the
guise of helping in anti-piracy operations is now expanding its foothold in the
Indian Ocean region. While the Somalian piracy trouble has long disappeared,
China continues to extend its presence by wooing the Indian Ocean Littoral
countries. Its generous infrastructure bounties and soft credit lines to
Maldives, Sri Lanka are also part of this larger strategy. In fact China
established its presence in Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean by undertaking major
development projects of Gwadar Port in Pakistan and Hambantota port of Sri
Lanka. The large part of the schematic presence of China in western Indian
Ocean will focus on military operations other than the war (MOOTW). Presence in
Djibouti will enable China to respond to contingencies of the freedom of
navigation in the Persian Gulf region. China intends to develop a string of
naval bases in the Indian Ocean region to protect its Sea Lines of Communication
(SLOCs) and eventually expand its naval presence too. Now that US dependence of
oil imports from the Arabian region has reduced, it questions US presence in
the Gulf and aspires to replace its position. By and large China seems to have
officially unveiled its “string of naval bases” pursuit with Djibouti logistics
facility (Chinese preferred name for a base).
New Delhi can hardly afford to ignore the lurking presence
and explicit augmentation of Chinese maritime capabilities in its realm of
influence. But India’s depleting naval assets and inadequate replenishment of
maritime resources should be a cause for major concern. Moreover, India
shouldn’t go by Chinese theatrics of “no military ambition in Djibouti”, for it
has mastered the art of subterfuge. Djibouti is clearly a new beginning, a
preview to the larger panorama of China’s geopolitical ambitions.
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