It has added that it will also lead military cooperation and joint exercises as the PLA navy and other China's services seek to expand their reach globally, inlined with China's growth in a political and economic aspect. Chinsese officials are calling it a "logistics facility", but are sending their military troops to the location. Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) salute from a ship sailing off from a military port in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, July 11, 2017.
"The use of the logistics base in Djibouti will enable China to fulfill its global duty more efficiently, including patrol missions and participation in humanitarian operations", Geng said at a briefing. It's not a commercial resupply point.
The United States, France, Japan, Italy and Spain already have bases there, and Saudi Arabia is now building one.
The Global Times said the main role of the base would be to support Chinese warships operating in the region in anti-piracy and humanitarian operations. "It's not tied in with trying to control the world".
China pledged $60bn in Africa's development in 2015, developing multiple infrastructure projects down the east coast of the continent.
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"As political analyst Lai Yueqian said in an interview with Taiwan Today: "[The base] can be used to pin down the United States and any US -led organizations, and if [the U.S.] wants to intervene against China's interests, they will have to think carefully, because China will use their military to protect their citizens and their property".
Djibouti is already home to the center of American operations in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, while France, Britain, Japan and other nations also maintain a military presence in the small but strategically located nation.
In March this year, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had reported that China plans to increase the size of its marine corps from 20,000 to one lakh personnel for overseas deployment, including at Gwadar and Djibouti.
It says its anxious the port could become another one of China's so-called "String of Pearls" of military alliances, part of a theory that China is building up strategic sea lanes along the Middle East to project its power overseas.
Some members would be stationed at ports China operates in Djibouti and Gwadar in southwest Pakistan, the report had said.
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