Ayni Air Base was the Indian Air Pressure’s first abroad base positioned in Tajikistan. The bottom was strategic because it gave India an edge in opposition to Pakistan and China as a result of its location and proximity. India had quietly modernised the airbase within the mountains of Tajikistan, reshaping the strategic panorama of South Asia, rising as a possible geopolitical lever—significantly in relation to Pakistan.
Situated about 15 kilometres west of Dushanbe, the Ayni Airbase—as soon as a decaying Soviet-era facility—has reworked right into a key strategic asset for India. After mendacity dormant by way of Tajikistan’s civil warfare within the Nineteen Nineties, the bottom was revived by way of a $70 million Indian funding launched in 2002, throughout the peak of the U.S.-led warfare on terror in Afghanistan.
By 2010, India had accomplished main upgrades, together with a 3,200-metre runway, fortified plane shelters, gasoline storage amenities, and fashionable air site visitors management techniques, making Ayni able to dealing with heavy-lift transporters just like the Ilyushin-76 and multirole fighter jets such because the Sukhoi Su-30MKI.
Nonetheless, if studies are to be believed, India has now misplaced a significant strategic foothold in Central Asia after being requested to vacate the Ayni Air Base in Tajikistan, marking the top of a two-decade-long presence that offered New Delhi crucial operational depth close to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Round 150 Indian personnel, together with members of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) who helped construct and preserve the ability, had been stationed there. Based on studies, Tajikistan requested India to withdraw its belongings and personnel from the bottom just a few months in the past. Analysts attribute this transfer to mounting geopolitical strain from China and Russia—each of whom share deep strategic ties with Tajikistan.
Beijing, which shares a 470-kilometre border with the Central Asian nation, was reportedly uncomfortable with India’s proximity within the area. Moscow, in the meantime, has lengthy maintained that it opposes any non-regional navy presence in territories as soon as a part of its conventional sphere of affect.
The closure of Ayni successfully reduces India’s strategic attain in Central Asia, at a time when regional energy dynamics are being reshaped by China’s rising affect and Russia’s renewed assertiveness.