China offers to build military base for Afghan troops

KABUL: China has offered to pay for the construction of a military base for a brigade of troops in Afghanistan’s remote northeastern Badakhshan province to prevent militant incursions into its territory.
“This is part of the understanding we have with China, it does not mean that Chinese troops or advisers will be based there,” Gen. Dawlat Waziri, chief Defense Ministry spokesman, told Arab News.
“They have proposed to pay the expenses of a brigade, whatever the cost be, and pay for other expenses of the soldiers, and we will provide our troops with arms and logistics with that money.”
No timescale has been set for construction of the base, and negotiations are continuing.
Taliban militants and foreign insurgents from Central Asia and China have established a presence in Badakhshan, even though the Taliban could not capture it when they controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan before they were ousted in 2001.
The insurgents have carried out a series of bloody attacks on Afghan forces. They are well armed, funded from taxes they levy on local people, especially on the production of lapis lazuli, the semi-precious stone for which the province is famous. The rise of Daesh affiliates there in recent months has been a cause of concern for both China and Russia.
Badakhshan is rugged, remote and mostly impoverished. The proposed site for the military base, the Wakhan Corridor, is inaccessible for much of the year because of heavy snow and the harsh climate.
The area is so isolated that many people there do not know who their president is, or that the US has been fighting a war in Afghanistan since 2001.
Wakhan borders the restive Chinese province of Xinjiang, where oppression of the largely Muslim population has drawn international condemnation and is viewed as creating a breeding ground for insurgents.
Militants from Xinjiang have been living in Afghanistan and Pakistan for many years. “China is worried and for obvious reasons,” Amanullah Paiman, a politician from Badakhshan, told Arab News. “The militants control nearly 50 percent of Badakhshan.”
However, he denied reports that Chinese military patrols had crossed into Afghanistan.