Tajikistan approves Chinese plan to construct security base near Afghan border

Tajikistan has accepted a Chinese offer to build a police outpost on the Afghan border

China will spend about $8.6 million USD on the facility before turning it over to Tajik control.

It’s the latest indication of Beijing’s growing security concerns in the region after the US ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The base points to deepening security cooperation between impoverished Tajikistan and China, which is reported to maintain another base in the southeast of the ex-Soviet country.

No Chinese personnel will be housed at the facility even though the nation has expressed concerns about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

It has urged the new Taliban Government to prevent terror groups from forming.

Beijing has routinely denied its overseas military facilities as bases. Tajikistan has also denied a Chinese military presence in the country.

Tajikistan, a country of 9.5 million, has received financial assistance from both China and the United States to build and reinforce its border posts and hosts a major Russian military base.