China
and Saudi Arabia are building military bases next door to US AFRICOM in
Djibouti—and bringing the consequences of American withdrawal from the
region into stark relief.
by Joseph Braude and Tyler Jiang
Djibouti, a resource-poor nation of 14,300 square miles and 875,000
people in the Horn of Africa, rarely makes international headlines. But
between its relative stability and strategic location—20 miles across
from war-consumed Yemen and in destroyer range of the pirate-infested
western edge of the Indian Ocean—it is now one of the more important
security beachheads in the develohttp://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Braude/e/B001KDV64Kping
world. Its location also matters greatly to global commerce and energy,
due to its vicinity to the Mandeb Strait and the Suez-Aden canal, which
sees ten percent of the world’s oil exports and 20 percent of its
commercial exports annually.[1]
Since November 2002, the country has been home to Camp Lemonnier, a
U.S. Expeditionary base—the only American base on the African
continent—along with other bases belonging to its French, Italian,
Spanish, and Japanese allies. (The United States maintains numerous
small outposts and airfields in Africa, but officially regards Lemonnier
as its only full-scale military base on the continent.)
But now there
are two new kids on the block: On January 21st, the Chinese Foreign
Affairs Ministry announced an agreement with Djibouti to host its
first-ever base beyond the South China Sea, and construction commenced
days later.[2]
Though Beijing called the installation a “logistics and fast evacuation
base,” the Asian power’s “near-abroad” rivals, such as Taiwan, opined
that it is more likely the beginning of a new, aggressive military
buildup to rival the United States. Six weeks later, Saudi Arabia
declared that it too would construct a base in Djibouti,[3]
apparently as part of its newly assertive policy of countering Iranian
proxies politically and militarily throughout the region.[4] read more
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