China to fund $50 million reinforcements along Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan

China will finance the construction of nine border facilities in Tajikistan along the frontier with Afghanistan in a project worth more than $50 million aimed at strengthening the operational capacity of the country’s Border Troops.

The initiative forms part of broader security cooperation between Beijing and Dushanbe and reflects growing attention to stability along Tajikistan’s southern border. According to Tajik officials, the project will cover approximately 17,109 square metres, with construction costs estimated at around $52 million. The funding will be provided by China as a grant, while the Tajik side will exempt the project from taxes, customs duties and other mandatory payments.

In addition to financing the construction, China will send engineers to Tajikistan to install and configure the required equipment. Beijing will also provide office and residential furniture, as well as computer equipment needed for the operation of the facilities.

Essential facilities 

The project includes the development of essential supporting infrastructure. Chinese contractors are expected to build access roads to the sites, install water supply and drainage systems, connect the facilities to electricity networks and carry out other technical works required for their operation. Financing from Beijing is expected to begin once internal procedures in China have been completed.

Muradali Rajabzoda, First Deputy Chairman of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB), told lawmakers that the project will be implemented in three stages. According to him, the exchange of official letters required for the second stage has already taken place.

Rajabzoda also noted that the relevant documents were approved by the Tajik government in November 2025 before being submitted to parliament and coordinated with other ministries and state bodies.

Improving border security 

The initiative builds on earlier cooperation between the two countries aimed at strengthening border security. Bahriddin Ziyoi, a member of the parliamentary committee on law and order, defence and security, said that during the first stage of the programme - implemented between 2017 and 2018 with Chinese funding - twelve border facilities were constructed in Tajikistan’s regions bordering Afghanistan.

Chinese involvement in security infrastructure in Tajikistan has periodically attracted attention and debate over the extent of Beijing’s presence in Central Asia. Questions about this were raised in Tajikistan’s parliament in October 2021, when lawmakers discussed reports that a new facility would be built in the Gorno-Badakhshan region under an agreement between Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and China’s Ministry of Public Security.

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At the time, Tajik authorities rejected claims that the project represented the construction of a Chinese military base. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that reports suggesting China was building a military base in Tajikistan did not correspond to reality.

The issue resurfaced in 2024 after the British newspaper The Telegraph reported that China was secretly constructing a military base in Tajikistan, citing concerns in Beijing about security threats emanating from Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs later denied the existence of any Chinese military base in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.

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