After years of NATO’s eastward expansions and regular requests by the eastern member states, NATO is finally awake after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and started building a large ‘serious’ base in Romania. On the other hand, China is also planning to build a new military base.
New NATO Base in Romania:
Romania is a NATO member state and shares a border with Ukraine and Moldova. Romania’s border with Ukraine is 640KM long. It is also located at a very critical juncture of the Black Sea. A few days ago a lot of sea mines came to the Romanian shores and the authorities claimed they were from the Russian Navy.
NATO is worried now that the war in Ukraine can spill over throughout Europe and perhaps in the world. The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has already ‘accidentally’ unfolded the ‘plans of invasion’ for Moldova which is a non-NATO state.
Romania holds 1000 NATO Troops on its bases across the country. But now as the war in Ukraine has gone critical NATO is rethinking its next plan of action for Europe.
The new base is being built at Cincu, on the hilltops of Transylvania under the supervision of Col. Flavien Garrigou Grandchamp. At the new base, there will be at least 1000 NATO troops stationed throughout the year. This base will also help the Romanian troops to integrate more with the NATO Troops.
Cincu is located at the very the center of Romania, in Brașov County – at approximately equal distances from important cities such as Sibiu, Brașov, Târgu Mureș, Sfântu Gheorghe and Miercurea Ciu. This way the new fort can provide immediate support to the cities nearby as well as help the civilians immediately if needed.
Just after the week after Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO started developing new integrated battlegroups for five NATO members. The battlegroups in Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria will contain 4500, 1100, 900, and 1650 NATO troops respectively.
For Russian President Vladimir Putin who wanted to stop NATO’s expansion and strengthen it is no less than a huge setback.
New Military Base of PLA:
Now, on the other hand, China is planning to make its second overseas base. And the location of the base is ‘Surprise Surprise’ Pakistan.
China is also planning to build another base in Afghanistan too. But first, let us talk about Pakistan’s Chinese Military base.
For the Belt and Road initiative China has invested more than $46 Billion in Pakistan and illegally occupied the Indian territories of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. Now China wants to protect its investment.
In Balochistan, the uproar and uprising against China and Pakistan’s Military occupation went to very alarming levels. A few weeks ago a Balochi woman, mother of three children blew herself up to kill three Chinese citizens. The attacks on Chinese citizens working in Balochistan have increased by many folds in the last few years.
The Gwadar port located in Balochistan, the crown jewel of CPEC, is under threat. This is why China wants to reapply their techniques of torturing which they had applied against the Uighurs in Xinjiang.
If the military base idea turns into a reality, Pakistan may go under Chinese occupation just like in old colonial times. This is not India At War’s words. A lot of Pakistani citizens, military officials and experts, and a lot of other experts from various other nations think the same. This is why even after paying off the top military officials of Pakistan, China is still struggling to open up its military base in Pakistan.
On the other hand, China wants to build a new base in Afghanistan as well. Afghanistan is rich in millions of tons of rare earth elements and China wants to dig them out of the ground. China had already invested in Afghanistan for minings and excavations but after the regime change, things had gone south for them.
Although China held so many meetings with Afghanistan the Uighur issues became the key problem for the Taliban and China relationship but when you got deep pockets no problem is a real problem for you. China is trying to buy off Taliban leaders and top officials to influence their mining operations in Afghanistan.
Ream Naval Base:
When you have money, you can get so many, friends. Pakistan is not the only country or friend China has. Recently, Cambodia has agreed to let Chinese PLA troops be stationed at Ream Naval Base.
The PLA Navy has taken over one-third of the naval base and they will be stationed there for 30 years. Currently, the Chinese PLA Navy is the Naval Force with the most vessels in the world. They have more than 350 naval vessels including nuclear submarines and two aircraft carriers and one in development.
Ream Naval Base is located in the Gulf of Thailand. This way, if India tries to blockade Malacca Straits, the Chinese PLA Navy can try to stop the Indian Navy from this base. This gives strategic importance to this naval base so greatly. Due to its location, it can also influence the Royal Thai Navy and Vietnam’s Navy.
Pakistan’s New Alleged Nuclear Base:
According to some ‘unverified sources’, Pakistan is developing a new Nuclear Base in one of their hilly areas with the help of China. As Pakistan and China have decided to increase their nuclear arsenal by 200 and 1000 respectively a new nuclear site would be rather fitting for the project.
Final Take:
Military bases no matter how small they are can play a major critical and crucial role during wartime. Military bases allow nations to power projection at enemy states far from the homeland. These are the reasons why the USA, UK, and France have the most number of military bases throughout the world at very critical junctions.
India too has a few military bases in foreign nations including the Farkhor Air Base in Tajikistan from where we keep Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China in check with our MiG29 squadron.
With increasing pressure from China and Pakistan, India should plan ahead for more military bases and aircraft carriers.