India's first overseas 'military base' taking shape in Tajikistan

Quickly and quietly, India is preparing to deploy a squadron of Mi-17 helicopters at the Ayni airbase in Tajikistan, possibly even before the end of this year. India's first real military outpost in a foreign land will give New Delhi a 'strategic' capability in energy-rich Central Asia.

India recently completed refurbishing the airbase at Ayni (also known as Farkhor), just 10 km northeast of Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital, at a cost of around Rs100 crore ($25 million), after four years of hard work. The airbase, shut since the late '80s, after the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is to be operated under a trilateral joint agreement between India, Russia and Tajikistan.

The defence ministry — with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security — has renovated and upgraded the base using engineers from the Border Roads Organisation, which extended and relaid the runway, constructed three aircraft hangars and an air-control tower, and installed perimeter security fencing around the base.

Tripartite tete-a-tete

In April 2002, when Indo-Pak relations were at their lowest following the attack on the Indian parliament and Pak airspace was closed to Indian aircraft, then Indian defense minister George Fernandes first signed a bilateral agreement with Tajikistan for renovation of the base during a visit to Dushanbe.

Initially, two squadrons of MiG-29 fighter-bombers were to operate from Ayni, but the proposed Indian force was later downgraded to a single helicopter squadron. The final trilateral agreement does not explicitly provide for use of the base by the Indian Armed Forces.

However, clandestine military cooperation between India and Tajikistan goes back to the 1990s, during the Afghan civil war, when both Tajikistan and India opposed the Pakistan-backed Taliban regime and threw their diplomatic weight behind the Northern Alliance. During this period, India also quietly helped to maintain the Northern Alliance's minuscule fleet of helicopters.

India's immediate plan, according to defence ministry sources, is be to deploy Mi-17 helicopters, as well as some Kiran trainer aircraft to train Tajik pilots, by the end of the year. But this is likely to be just a prelude to establishing a larger strategic imprint in a geography that India sees as crucial to its growing energy needs. Eventually, we may well see MiG-29s operating from the airbase.

The strategic scenario

    * An Indian military presence in Central Asia has significant strategic implications:

    * India sees the Central Asian region as crucial to its growing energy needs

    * It is close to Afghanistan, where India's strategic interests lie in preventing the return of the Taliban to power

    * Pakistan is only about 35 km away. Afghanistan's Wakkan Corridor separates Tajikistan from Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. India can keep a close watch on the volatile Pak-Afghan border

    * In case of situations like the hijacking of Indian Airlines IC-814 to Kandahar in December 1999, special forces can be moved in quickly when national interests are threatened

    * In the wake of their deteriorating relations with the US, Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries are favourably disposed towards India.

Two years ago, following Uzbekistan's bloody suppression of the Andijan uprising, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) — a group of nations comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — issued a statement calling on the US-led anti-terror coalition to set a deadline for ending its use of Central Asian bases and air space in member states, for which permission had been granted following 9/11. The US recently had to close a base in Uzbekistan. In 2006, India, Mongolia and Pakistan were granted observer status in the SCO.

SCO Secretary General Bolat Nurgaliev recently said, "Against the backdrop of what has been happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East; the stable development of SCO member states and India, and their multilateral cooperation can become an important factor in the process of building a just and equal world order."

Made for each other?

Despite being a relative military lightweight, India is potentially a far more suitable partner for the Central Asian republics. The Indian military has one overwhelming advantage over its US counterpart. Over 70 per cent of its military hardware and support equipment is of Soviet or Russian origin, and is almost identical to what the five Central Asian states use.

It is also a sign of how strong India's relations with Russia remain, notwithstanding the thaw with the US. IndiaRussia's largest market for armaments, and still receives approximately 40 per cent of its arms imports from Moscow. Tajikistan is host to a large Russian armed forces contingent, including nearly 11,000 troops. remains

India's Central Asian foray is closely linked to its stake in post-Taliban Afghanistan, where many large reconstruction contracts are being awarded to Indian companies. This includes a major roadway to Iran's Chahbahar port, whose construction Pakistan has opposed, as against its national interests. Another major Indian project is the construction of the 135-mile Zaranj-Delaram road in south-western Afghanistan, which will allow India to gain better access to Central Asian gas and oil.

Mum's the word

Ironically, both the defence ministry and IAF strongly deny any move to establish an Indian military base at Ayni. Mum's the word on the other side too; the Tajik defence ministry has consistently refuted reports that India will deploy aircraft near the republic's capital. It says Tajikistan and India do not have any agreement on military cooperation.

Other regional players, particularly Pakistan and China, are bound to view the new Indian military initiative with alarm. The US, though, may not mind too much. India's airbase will allow it to support stability efforts in Afghanistan, as well as monitor Islamic fundamentalism on the volatile Pak-Afghan border, goals that Washington shares.

Though India's entrance into Central Asia may seem more symbolic than significant at this point of time, the rising strength of the country's economy is bound to deepen its geo-political interest in Central Asia, sooner rather than later.

Source: Domain-B, 24 July 2007, http://www.domain-b.com/aero/20070723_military.htm