China does not have any military bases in Tajikistan or other Central Asian countries, said the official representative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lin Jian, in response to the publication of an article in the British newspaper Telegraph, reports Sputnik.
"I am not aware of the situation you mentioned, but I can confidently say that China always adheres to an independent peaceful foreign policy and does not have any military bases in Central Asia," said the diplomat at a press briefing in response to a question about the Telegraph publication.
This week, the British newspaper Telegraph published material stating that China is building a secret military base in the mountains of Tajikistan.
The publication cites satellite imagery data and reports that the base, located on the site of a former Soviet outpost at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters near the village of Shaymak in the Murghab district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, has been under construction for almost 10 years.
It is claimed that the secret military base has observation towers, a helicopter pad, and wide access roads for equipment.
The Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan has already stated that it does not have information about the presence of a Chinese military base in the southeast of the republic.
However, in reality, the issue concerns an agreement on the construction of an anti-terrorist base signed between Dushanbe and Beijing back in 2021. About 100 million somoni were allocated for the works. However, it was intended as an anti-terrorist base, and control over it should be exercised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan.
Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, Sirojiddin Muhriddin, told journalists that there is a base in GBAO near the border with Afghanistan that does not have a military character. According to him, it is intended for the reception of Chinese colleagues.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
July 12, 2024