DJIBOUTI — China is
negotiating a military base in the strategic port of Djibouti, the president
told AFP, raising the prospect of US and Chinese bases side-by-side in the tiny
Horn of Africa nation.
Djibouti is already home to Camp
Lemonnier, the US military headquarters on the continent, used for covert,
anti-terror and other operations in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere across Africa.
France and
Japan also have bases in the port, a former French colony that guards the
entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and which has been used by European
and other international navies as a base in the fight against piracy from
neighboring Somalia.
China is
already financing several major infrastructure projects estimated to total more
than $9 billion (8 billion euros), including improved ports, airports and
railway lines to landlocked Ethiopia, for whom Djibouti is a lifeline port.
"France's
presence is old, and the Americans found that the position of Djibouti could
help in the fight against terrorism in the region," Guelleh said.
"The
Japanese want to protect themselves from piracy — and now the Chinese also want
to protect their interests, and they are welcome," he said.
Djibouti
overseas the narrow Bab al-Mandeb straits, the channel separating Africa from
Arabia and one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, leading into the Red
Sea and northwards to the Mediterranean.
Djibouti and
Beijing signed a military agreement allowing the Chinese navy to use Djibouti
port in February 2014, a move that angered Washington.
China aims
to install a permanent military base in Obock, Djibouti's northern port city.
In recent years, Guelleh has
increasingly turned to China as a key economic partner. Last year he switched
the port operating contract to a Chinese company, after the previous
Dubai-based operator was accused of corruption. Agence France-Presse
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