The Central Asian nation’s parliament said on Thursday that China would finance the construction of a checkpoint near the Tajik-Afghan border for a special forces unit of Tajikistan’s police.
The post will be located in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan’s eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, which borders China’s Xinjiang province as well as the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan.
A parliament spokesman said no Chinese troops would be stationed at the facility.
The plan to build the post comes amid tensions between the Dushanbe government and Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has refused to recognize the Taliban government, calling for wider representation of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups – of which Tajiks are the second largest.
In return, Kabul warns Dushanbe against interfering in his domestic affairs. According to Russian media, the Taliban have aligned with an ethnic Tajik terrorist group based in northern Afghanistan that seeks to overthrow Rahmon’s government.
The Russian-led Regional Security Organization last week conducted exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border, designed to demonstrate that Moscow is ready to defend Dushanbe in the event of an incursion from the south.
China is a major investor in Tajikistan and Beijing has also acted as a donor on several occasions, for example handing over a new parliament building for free.
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