JAKARTA - China will finance the construction of an outpost for special forces units near the Tajik-Afghan border, the country's parliament said Thursday.
The outpost will be located in Tajikistan's eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in the Pamir Mountains, which borders China's Xinjiang Province and Afghanistan's Bedakhsan Province.
The plan to build the outpost comes amid tensions between the Dushanbe government of Tajikistan and the new Taliban rulers in Afghanistan.
However, no Chinese troops will be stationed at the facility, a parliamentary spokesman said. Later, the post will be occupied by a special forces unit of the Tajikistan police.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has refused to recognize the Taliban government, calling for wider representation of Afghanistan's ethnic group, of which the Tajiks are the second largest.
Kabul, in turn, has warned Dushanbe not to interfere in his internal affairs. According to Russian media, the Taliban have forged an alliance with an ethnic Tajik militant group based in northern Afghanistan that is seeking to overthrow the Rakhmon government.
To note, a Russian-led regional security organization held drills last week near the Tajik-Afghan border, designed to show Moscow is ready to protect Dushanbe in the event of an attack from the south.
China is a major investor in Tajikistan and Beijing has also acted as a donor on several occasions, such as building a new parliament building for free.
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