Station looks beyond anti-piracy mission

Militarily, Djibouti's advantage lies in its location, deep water ports and friendly attitude toward foreign troops. Djibouti is strategically located－at the entrance from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. It oversees the Bab al-Mandeb (or the Mandeb Strait), one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. And the waters in the Port of Djibouti are deep enough for an aircraft carrier like France's Charles de Gaulle to dock. Moreover, the Djibouti government welcomes the presence of American, French, Japanese and Chinese troops on its soil.

Djibouti not only occupies a vantage point in the fight against piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa. It is also a gateway for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid and disaster relief in Africa and the Middle East, two missions that are increasingly becoming part of the PLA's overseas operations. At present 2,787 Chinese peacekeepers are deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, South Sudan, Sudan, Mali and Lebanon. A standby PLA force of 8,000 troops is being built. The PLA has also taken part in quite a few humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations along the rim of the Indian Ocean and other parts of Africa, from evacuating foreign citizens from war-torn Yemen to fighting the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

In the long run, Djibouti could serve as a PLA station for regional capacity building. One of the ways China is helping global governance is by strengthening regional institutions such as the African Union. Beijing has also announced a $100-million free military aid for the AU to help establish the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis.

The PLA's logistic support station can therefore serve more than counter-piracy missions. It could be a milestone in China's support for stabilizing Africa and the Middle East where China's greater role in regional security is more than welcome.

The author is an honorary fellow at the Center of China-American Defense Relations, Academy of Military Science.