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By Tyler Durden

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While some observers view China’s establishment of a military base in the country as a reflection of Xi’s efforts to i) project Beijing’s growing military prowess, and ii) serve notice that in the wake of the PLA’s unexpected visit to the besieged Yemeni port of Aden last year, China isn’t afraid to get involved in the region’s affairs, it’s worth noting that the Chinese are no strangers to Djibouti. China has been investing in the country’s infrastructure for years, most notably in the form of a $4 billion railroad connecting the country to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

And that’s not all.

“China is financing a railroad, as well as an expansion of port terminals, fuel and water pipelines, a natural gas liquefaction plant, highway upgrades, two proposed airports, and several government buildings,” Bloomberg writes, adding that “the new military installation will be a sort of insurance policy, a security station to protect its investments and extend its economic reach.”

China is pitching its involvement in the country’s development as an extension of Xi’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which is essentially an expansive initiative that i) gives China an excuse to take a stake in any country that’s willing to accept FDI, and ii) creates a kind of pressure valve for Beijing’s excess industrial capacity.

“China is explaining it as part of the ‘one road, one belt’ strategy, to help link Ethiopia to the sea,” one Western diplomat who has been briefed by Chinese officials on the Djibouti base, told Reuters this week. “China does not want to be seen as a threat.”

And frankly, they probably aren’t. Or at least not any more of a threat than all of the other countries that have military outposts in Djibouti. Countries like the US, which unsurprisingly has the largest military presence of any nation and which uses its bases there as a launching pad for drone missions. “Djibouti is also the U.S. military’s regional hub for drones, and it sends thousands of Predators and Reapers across the region each year,” Bloomberg notes, before recounting a hilarious string of drone and spy plane mishaps that eventually led Washington to move the unmanned killing machines away from the country’s airport. Here are a few additional excerpts from Bloomberg’s latest on the country:

[In the late seventies] Djibouti, a country about the size of New Jersey, had one paved road and less than a square mile of arable land. The Associated Press deemed it perfectly devoid of resources, “except for sand, salt, and 20,000 camels.” The New York Times guessed the new nation might get swallowed up by one of its neighbors—Ethiopia or Somalia, maybe—because it was “so impoverished that it cannot stand on its own.”

Years passed, and those neighbors were too preoccupied with wars, famine, and civil anarchy to pay much attention to it. Such upheavals, …read more

Source: "Forgotten Sandlot" Or "The Next Dubai"? This Tiny African Nation Is Now A Geopolitical Hot Spot

    

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Posted March 27th, 2016 in Uncategorized.