1. As part of its national defense policy, China has expanded its military ties across Africa in recent years. More than 2,500 Chinese combat-ready soldiers and police officers are now deployed in UN Peacekeeping missions across the African continent. While this growing Chinese military presence has raised concerns of “ulterior motives”, China’s state-run media stressed the new naval base was about protecting its own security and “not about seeking to control the world.”

2. Positioned on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean, the naval base represents the “first pearl of a necklace” unfolding along the sea route that connects China to the Middle East. It has fuelled worries in India that it’s part of China’s strategy to encircle the Indian subcontinent (“the string of pearls”) with the help of military alliances and assets in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

3. Djibouti‘s status as a model of stability in an otherwise volatile region is one of its greatest assets. It lies on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a gateway to the Suez Canal, which is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. The establishment of an active Chinese naval base would act as a deterrent to pirate attacks on the crucial trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

4. Djibouti’s proximity to restive regions in Africa and the Middle East makes it significant for the location of bases for military superpowers. The crises in Somalia and Yemen have warranted international responses and the need for military bases nearby. Chinese nationals working on infrastructure projects in the region would also benefit from the proximity of a military base in the region.

5. Djibouti hosts the largest American permanent military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, which is home to more than 4,000 personnel. However, the Chinese base will be established in the northern Obock region, eclipsing smaller US military installations there. Japan, which has been in a tense stand-off with China over disputed islands in the South and East China Sea, is in the process of expanding its small military outpost in the desert nation.

6. As Africa’s main trading partner since 2008, China is also interested in securing a long-term foothold on the continent and Djibouti is at the core of such a strategy. It is where China chose to build its first overseas military base, which would also help it realise its ambitious plan of a “Maritime Silk Road” – a vast international network of sea infrastructure aimed at securing its trade routes, ensuring the undisturbed travel of China-bound raw materials and energy vessels, as well as of its transformed products back to Europe through the Gulf of Aden.