China has started building a naval logistics center on the territory of Djibouti, an official representative of the Ministry of Defense Wu Qian said Thursday.
“At the moment the construction of relevant engineering structures has already begun, China has already sent some staff to carry out the relevant work,” the official representative of the Ministry of Defense wrote on the official website.
Djibouti is a country in eastern Africa. It has borders with Eritrea to the west and Ethiopia to the south. Earlier Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said that the country is a vital piece in the Horn of Africa situated between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It is a key transfer stop for international humanitarian missions, including those of the United Nations.
Earlier Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said Djibouti is one of the closest major ports to Somalia. Its peaceful environment is suitable to China's support facility.
Zhang said the station that China plans to build there is designed to provide food, water and oil. It would be totally different from US military bases, which supply weaponry, Zhang added.
