India’s exit from Tajikistan airbase
BILATERAL – INDIA-ASIA
2 NOVEMBER 2025
- India’s withdrawal from the Soviet-era Ayni airbase in Tajikistan is a setback to the country’s strategic diplomacy, as it was its only overseas military facility.
- India had set up the Ayni airbase in the early 2000s and was asked four years ago to scale down its presence, after the expiry of a bilateral agreement with Tajikistan
- India has now fully withdrawn.
- Ayni base, located about 10 km from Dushanbe, is near a museum that houses the 1,500-year-old Buddha of Nirvana.
- India had upgraded the base by strengthening its runway, fuel depots, and air traffic control systems, and had at one stage deployed Su-30 MKI fighter jets and helicopters there.
- The facility was last used in 2021 to evacuate Indian nationals from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover.
- The closure marks the end of India’s only overseas military outpost — once seen as a key node in its Central Asian strategy.
