Hmmmm... NEW DELHI, India -- India has set up its first permanent
overseas military base in the central Asian nation of Tajikistan to
safeguard its strategic interests in the region -- a move that has
upset Pakistan, defense ministry officials said Thursday.
Indian military engineers have renovated the former Tajik military
base at a cost of 500 million rupees ($10 million), a senior
defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The
base has not been used since 1985.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was meeting
with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in Moscow on Thursday,
was scheduled to travel to Tajikistan later in the day.
The air base in Ayni, 10 kilometers northeast of the capital
Dushanbe, will have a runway for fighter and transport aircraft,
the official said.
Moscow Times