Posted on 04/20/2006 9:49:01 AM PDT by ketelone
India to station MiG-29 fighter-bombers at Tajikistan base
By Rahul Bedi, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) India's first overseas military facility in Tajikistan is expected to become operational by the year-end as part of New Delhi's thrust into oil-rich Central Asia to meet its growing energy needs.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is to deploy a fleet of MiG-29 fighter-bombers at the airbase at Aini, 15 km from the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe.
India's quasi-military Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is currently constructing three hangars at Aini, two of which will accommodate the 12 aircraft the IAF will deploy for varying periods, official sources said.
The Tajikistan Air Force, whose personnel the IAF is training under an April 2002 defence cooperation agreement, will utilise the third hangar. For this purpose the IAF also plans to station trainer aircraft at Aini.
The IAF is also helping its Tajik counterpart to retrofit its Soviet-era fighters while Indian civilian and military personnel are teaching the Tajik servicemen English.
The Indian defence ministry declined to comment on the Tajik base. However, defence planners said the base would provide New Delhi with a 'longer strategic reach' in Central Asia and help it secure badly needed oil contracts.
Military sources said the BRO, supervised by a contingent of Indian Army and IAF personnel, is expected to complete work at Aini by the Tajik National Day Sep 9.
The BRO took charge of the project earlier this year. This was after a New Delhi-based private builder who was allotted a $10 million contract in early 2003 to restore the airbase defaulted on completing the undertaking by end-2005. The base has been lying unused since mid-1980.
Senior military sources, preferring to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the project, said that a contingent of around 40 Indian Army and IAF personnel, including around six officers and commanded by an army colonel, were overseeing the air base's refurbishment.
This includes restoring its runway, the aircraft taxiing track and parking apron, besides building accommodation for a 'sizeable' Indian military contingent.
India's initiative at Aini follows the establishment of its first military 'outpost' in Tajikistan at Farkhor, adjoining the Tajik-Afghan border, that is manned by a handful of defence 'advisors' from New Delhi.
The 'quietly functional' Farkhor base is an extension of the field hospital India established in the late 1990s to help the Northern Alliance in its fight against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Technicians from the IAF and India's secretive Aviation Research Centre (ARC) serviced and repaired the Alliance's Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters for several years, until the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
The Research and Analysis Wing, India's overseas intelligence-gathering agency, operates ARC.
India uses Farkhor principally to funnel economic and relief assistance it pledged to war-ravaged Afghanistan after 2001. Relief material is airlifted by the IAF to Aini, transported to Farkhor and into Afghanistan by road. India's rival Pakistan does not permit it overland access to Afghanistan.
India has close political and diplomatic relations with Kabul and has provided President Hamid Karzai's government extensive financial aid. Its efforts have been bolstered by Washington's endorsement of New Delhi's role in providing training and possibly even equipment to the Afghan army and police and in aiding Afghanistan's reconstruction.
India's energy requirements are expected to more than double by 2010 to around four million barrels per day (mbd) from 1.9 mbd at present. The country has been seeking alternative fuel sources in Central Asia through a combination of purchasing oil blocks, constructing pipelines and conducting barter trade.
India's recent diplomatic thrust into Central Asia for its energy requirements and strategic positioning through bilateral visits by senior leaders, enhanced trade and understated military agreements with some of the republics has also been triggered by the region's security realignments.
The ensuing conflict of interest in the area between India's Cold War ally Russia and the US - its new found 'strategic partner' - and China is also fuelling New Delhi's 'forward' Central Asian policy.
Says retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal: 'Though India remains powerless to engineer or overtly influence the New Game, its size, military and nuclear capability make it a not altogether insignificant part of the emerging complex jigsaw.'
Seriously, though... it appears that India is trying to gain a foothold on China's eastern borders, as well as trying to secure a hold near central asias oil fields.
Technicians from the IAF and India's secretive Aviation Research Centre (ARC) serviced and repaired the Alliance's Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters for several years, until the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
The Research and Analysis Wing, India's overseas intelligence-gathering agency, operates ARC.
India uses Farkhor principally to funnel economic and relief assistance it pledged to war-ravaged Afghanistan after 2001. Relief material is airlifted by the IAF to Aini, transported to Farkhor and into Afghanistan by road. India's rival Pakistan does not permit it overland access to Afghanistan.
Thanks for sending out the ping...
I think this is a pretty interesting development. Its all been done pretty low key, and subtly.
I can't see any reason for this except to panic the Pakistanis.
Yes. Pakistan is itchy about India's access to Afghanistan.
To this date, Pakistan does not allow unrestricted land-route access for aid from India to reach Afghanistan.
India has interests in getting Baluchistan to secede from Pakistan. Baluchistan has an ongoing separatist movement, and Pakistan has allowed China to build a naval port there.
Plus more Pakistani forces concentrated in Baluchistan means less conduit-troops for sending jehadis across the border into Kashmir.
India has multi billions dollars investments in oil and gas in Tajikistan and Sakhlin in Russia
Lets put it this way. The US would rather see India sphere of influence there than the CCP.
Hmm the Mig 29 hardly bothers anyone except its pilot. :-). The Migs have been known to crash and burn for no reason.
Anyways India in that region is a good development. Should help us with your reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
The 29's are IMO fairly competent aircraft.
And especially, they are superior to anything else available in the area, barring US forces, of course... Chinas only aircraft superior to the Fulcrum is a version of the Su-27 Flanker. Dunno if there are any stationed in the neighborhood, though.
Listmates, stop for just a second and think about this from the US's strategic position.
First, India steps outside its borders.
Second, the IAF now threatens Iran from the rear.
This is a blockbuster of a development.
Iran now has to look over its shoulder and worry.
Next comes heavy combat brigades in Afghanistan on the Iranian border.
We've finally got India on our side.
This is great!
india wont threaten iran. they will remain neutral and support us diplomatically. india's main enemy is pakistan. india has a huge shia population and attacking iran would be political suicide for an indian leader.
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