China and the United States face off in Djibouti

By Arwa Damon and Brent Swails

Djibouti -- A dirt track at Djibouti's Doraleh Port leads to a series of unassuming single-story buildings that, earlier this year, hosted the world's two superpowers.
The Chinese contingent took their seats to the far right of the podium where US Rear Adm. Heidi Berg formally launched the US-led military exercise, Cutlass Express.
Cutlass, and the handful of other annual US-led drills held throughout the African continent, are a low-risk and relatively low-cost way for US Africa Command (AFRICOM) to gain and keep regional allies.
But in Djibouti -- a tiny nation of just 884,000 people that is a key Red Sea ally of the US -- and throughout Africa, there's new competition for local loyalties from China's military, which is increasingly asserting its influence on the continent.
In 2017, China's People Liberation Army (PLA) opened its first overseas base in Djibouti. 

The sprawling, gray concrete complex sits on a prime location next to one of Djibouti's main ports -- and is just a 15-minute drive from the US military's only permanent base on the continent, Camp Lemonnier.

The Chinese contingent takes their seats as US Rear Adm. Heidi Berg takes to the podium to formally launch the US-led military exercise, Cutlass Express.

Lemonnier is a strategic asset for US missions abroad, used as a staging area for America's intelligence and counterterrorism operations on the African continent and beyond. 

One AFRICOM official, who was authorized to speak on the condition of anonymity, says the physical PLA presence in Africa is becoming a long-term strategic concern for America.
"They (China) have upped their game, in plain language, and ultimately they are offering things that our partners want, that our partners need," said the AFRICOM official. 

"In places, we have concerns we are being out-competed."
On the ground, however, both sides are engaged in respectful diplomacy. 

The night before the Cutlass Express, Chinese military officials invited Adm. Berg and her contingent on board a Chinese destroyer docked at the nearby harbor. 

And, for the first time, Berg welcomed PLA commander Liang Yang to the exercise's opening ceremony.
When Berg was asked to comment on the "us or them" narrative, she was quick to refocus attention on what the US can do for its allies.
"I think we want to ensure that we don't frame it ... that Africa is a backdrop and an arena for us to score points off China," Berg said. 

"We are here and our investment and focus is on building our African partners."
The Chinese contingent at the Cutlass Express launch declined to comment to CNN, but Xi Jinping made it clear at a high-level summit in Beijing last September that he's pursuing a "comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership" with Africa, which includes a $60 billion package of aid, investment and loans to Africa.
"We are about to set out on a new journey in history," he said.

Expanding in Africa
China has been expanding its military ties in Africa for years, through extended peacekeeping missions, military personnel training and the China-Africa Peace and Security Initiative forum.
The US, naturally, viewed the base with unease, given its proximity to Camp Lemonnier and Djibouti's main container port, which is the primary source of supplies to sustain a force of around 4,000 US personnel on the base.
"It's no secret that roughly 98% of the logistics support for Djibouti, as well as Somalia and East Africa, come through that port," AFRICOM's commanding Gen. Thomas Waldhauser told a recent Senate committee briefing. 

"That port is one of five entities in the overall Djiboutian port. And so, our access there is necessary and required."

The USS Chung-Hoon leaves Djibouti on its way back to its home port. The destroyer took part in this year's Cutlass Express exercise.

The loss of that access would be a devastating blow to American interests and operations. 

One way that could happen would be if China were to leverage its control over Djibouti's debt into control over Djibouti's ports. 

China holds around 80% of the country's debt.

Debt fears
In recent years, China has increased its decades-long military ties with African countries by expanding training programs and increasing weapon sales. 

It's now the number two arms supplier to sub-Saharan Africa after Russia and the number three supplier to North Africa, behind Russia and the US, according to research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
But at the heart of the US concern is China's lending practices on the continent. 

Since 2000, African countries have borrowed about $130 billion from China, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis. 

And the amount of loans has tripled since 2012, largely through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"This is a central preset to Chinese strategy. When you look through history you preemptively shape the environment, shape the potential battlefield, so that your adversaries decide to not even come out on to the field to begin with. There's real potential for the debt to do that," said Gabriel Collins, co-founder of research group, China SignPost.

Last year, US national security advisor John Bolton was blunt. 

During a Heritage Foundation speech that laid out the Trump administration's Africa policy, he claimed "China uses bribes, opaque agreements, and strategic use of debt to hold African states captive to Beijing's demands."
The US fears about losing access to the port could be rooted in history. 

In 2017, Sri Lanka surrendered a major port to China after defaulting on the Chinese loan.
In that instance, the Sri Lankan government, then led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, took on $1.5 billion of Chinese debt to develop the Hambantota Port, which ultimately failed. 

To ease its debt burden, Sri Lanka agreed to hand it over on a 99-year lease.

Djibouti's container port is key for US operations at Camp Lemonier. The base has no direct access to water.

Proponents of China's BRI point out that the scheme often funds much-needed projects that other investors would balk at supporting, and that its focus on infrastructure, with a target investment of $1 trillion in construction is having an immediate impact on the continent.
Djiboutian officials insist the country will maintain control over its ports and that, so far, the government has a solid track record of paying off its loans.

"The funding is coming from China mainly, but we own the investments, we own the assets. It's a port, it's a railway, it's a free zone, we own two thirds of our investments," said the chairman of the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, Aboubaker Omar Hadi.
But Hadi is also well aware of the risks of -- literally -- banking on China. 

He just returned from a trip to Asia and Europe to try to drum up investment. 

"We don't want to depend only on one side, one continent, one country," he said.
Hadi bristles at the notion that his country and others on the continent are caught in a superpower tug of war. 

"The world needs to understand whether it's east or west or north or south, that we are going to decide our destiny ... Everyone is welcome," he said.

The future
The official position of the Djibouti government may do little to reassure skeptics who believe China's investment program is a front for a more sinister motive of establishing a military footprint worldwide.
"The theory is that if China continues unmitigated expansion, both militarily and economically, and we don't compete to protect our influence, the consequence could be that we are edged out of those areas and we lose the ability to address what we perceive as counterterrorism national interests in Africa," the AFRICOM official said.
Countering China's economic might is hardly something that should fall on AFRICOM, said Wake Forest professor Benabdallah.
"China has been operating (in Africa) for the better part of two decades now and has been doing so in a very smart way, with really close networks and connections that have been in the work for several years," she said.

Camp Lemonier is home to around 4,000 US military personnel. The base is a strategic asset for US missions abroad, used as a staging area for America's intelligence and counter terrorism operations on the African continent and beyond.

Benabdallah added that much of China's expansion in Africa is the result of strategic dedication led by Xi. 

The Chinese dictator has made six trips to the continent, and since January 1990, the Chinese foreign minister's first trip every year has been to a country in Africa.
Collins, founder of China SignPost, said soft power has long been a distinguishing feature of US foreign policy, and the current administration would be best served by taking a multilateral approach to relations in Africa.
"For the price of a single drone or fighter jet you could establish multiple university branches, and you would still have the funds to support those over the long haul," he said.
"It's not an instant payoff for someone who has the impatience of some of our current administration, but if we took a root cause strategy, 10 years from now there would be enormous dividends from that."
But until the US can figure out an "all of government" approach, some believe that much of the responsibility continues to land on AFRICOM's shoulders.
"We have gone from a unipolar world to realizing at best it's bipolar, at worst it's multipolar," the AFRICOM official said. 

"I would have a stark perspective. I think we are losing -- in Africa we are losing."

Sina Delenda Est

How China’s Laser Attacks on the U.S. Military Could Cause a Serious Conflict

By ANDREW SHEARER

Earlier this month, the Pentagon charged that Chinese nationals targeted U.S. Air Force pilots with military-grade lasers near Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, close to where China established its first overseas military base in 2017. 

Two American pilots sustained eye injuries, according to the Pentagon.
Apart from harming the health of American service personnel and posing a danger to aircraft safety, the use of lasers against U.S. military planes indicates two other major risks: It might trigger a conflict between the U.S. and China, and could be part of a larger Chinese strategy of building maritime bases worldwide that could be used to undermine U.S. security interests.
Djibouti is strategically located, controlling access to vital international waterways joining the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. 

Since the 9/11 terror attacks, it has hosted Camp Lemonnier, the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa and a critical hub also supporting American operations across the Middle East, Europe, and the Indian Ocean.
The Chinese government has denied any responsibility for the incidents, but there are strong grounds for skepticism. 

The U.S. military notice issued to warn pilots of the hazard refers to a location only 750 meters offshore from the Chinese base—which itself is only a few miles from Camp Lemonnier. Chinese military doctrine includes the use of lasers to blind adversaries: In 2015, the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the People’s Liberation Army, reported that the PLA had been updating its “blinding laser weapons.” 

And Beijing has a history of dissembling about its military moves: It recently installed sophisticated anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles in the Spratly archipelago, in further breach of Xi Jinping’s public promise in 2015 not to militarize the South China Sea.
The first major risk of China’s use of laser weapons is that it could feed rising tensions between the U.S. and China and, in the worst case, lead to miscalculation and even conflict. 

In 2001, a reckless Chinese fighter pilot collided with a U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane conducting a routine patrol, forcing the U.S. aircraft to make an emergency landing in China. 

Diplomacy resolved the crisis, but only after a tense standoff.
There are no guarantees a future incident will end peacefully. 

Washington and Beijing are already at loggerheads over trade and intellectual property theft, and the Trump administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy broke new ground by formally labeling China a “strategic competitor.” 

The American and Chinese militaries are yet to negotiate the robust “rules of the road” that minimized the risk of inadvertent clashes between U.S. and Soviet forces even at the height of the Cold War. 

And the PLA has become increasingly assertive since the EP‑3 incident, with its ships and aircraft engaging in frequent unsafe encounters with U.S. and Japanese vessels and planes.
The second, longer-term danger is that China’s activities in Djibouti form part of a much broader—and troubling—pattern. 

The commander of the U.S. African Command testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that the U.S. is closely monitoring Chinese “encroachment” on the American military presence at Camp Lemonnier. 

China has been building a chain of “dual-use” maritime facilities throughout the Indo-Pacific—often in strategic locations and close to U.S. bases. 

In peacetime these can be used to support the PLA’s increasing projection of military power, build influence with governments in the neighborhood, monitor American forces, and obstruct U.S. military access in a crisis short of actual conflict. 

But at any time of Beijing’s choosing, these facilities could rapidly be dedicated to military use.
The U.S. and its allies need to push back calmly but firmly against activities that jeopardize not only the safety of their personnel, but peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific—and America’s longer-term strategic position.

Chinese Aggressions

China is directing blinding lasers at American military aircraft in Djibouti
By Paul Sonne

Djibouti, a tiny Horn of Africa nation with less than 1 million inhabitants, has become a military outpost for China, France, Italy and Japan.

The United States has formally complained to China after alleging that the Chinese military injured two U.S. airmen by directing high-grade lasers at American aircraft in Djibouti.
Pentagon spokeswoman Dana W. White said at a briefing on Thursday that the United States has requested China investigate incidents in recent weeks in which U.S. aircraft in Djibouti have been affected by unauthorized Chinese laser activity.
White said the Pentagon was confident that Chinese nationals were "responsible". 

She said there had been more than two but fewer than 10 such incidents, which she said had increased in frequency in recent weeks.
“It’s a serious matter,” White said. 

“And we’re taking it very seriously.”
The United States and China both have bases in Djibouti, an East African nation on the Gulf of Aden with fewer than 1 million people. 

Djibouti has become a hub of foreign military activity in recent years, hosting bases from an array of countries including France, Italy and Japan. 

Saudi Arabia is planning to build a base there as well.
Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. naval expeditionary base in Djibouti that is home to about 4,000 American service members, serves as a hub for American counterterrorism activities in nearby countries such as Somalia and Yemen. 

The United States also has been running drone operations out of Djibouti.
The incidents with the lasers, which can temporarily blind pilots, come as one of the first major dust-ups since China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti in 2017. 

The facility’s opening raised concerns among American military officials about the proximity of the Chinese military installation to American forces. 

The Chinese have characterized the base as a logistics hub for peacekeeping and anti-piracy operations.
American authorities recently issued a notice warning pilots that there had been incidents involving “a high-power laser” near the Chinese base in Djibouti. 

The notice urged pilots to “use extreme caution when transiting near the area.”
White said two American airmen had suffered minor injuries but didn’t provide details. 

According to CNN, two members of a C-130 aircrew suffered minor eye injuries because of exposure to military-grade lasers.
IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, citing “multiple intelligence sources,” reported in April that the Chinese navy is suspected of operating a high-powered laser weapon at the base in Djibouti or on a ship offshore.
“The use of lasers to temporarily blind pilots has been increasing over the years and dates back to the Cold War when U.S. Navy pilots were periodically attacked by lasers emanating from Soviet naval vessels and spy trawlers,” Jane’s said.
A spokesman for the State Department declined to comment on the contents of its communications with China.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese Peril

U.S. Wary of Its New Neighbor in Djibouti: A Chinese Naval Base
By ANDREW JACOBS and JANE PERLEZ

The United States established Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
DJIBOUTI — The two countries keep dozens of intercontinental nuclear missiles pointed at each other’s cities. 

Their frigates and fighter jets occasionally face off in the contested waters of the South China Sea.
With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other’s war machines.
But the two strategic rivals are about to become neighbors in this sun-scorched patch of East African desert. 

China is constructing its first overseas military base here — just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign installations.
With increasing tensions over China’s island-building efforts in the South China Sea, American strategists worry that a naval port so close to Camp Lemonnier could provide a front-row seat to the staging ground for American counterterror operations in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
“It’s like having a rival football team using an adjacent practice field,” said Gabriel Collins, an expert on the Chinese military and a founder of the analysis portal China SignPost. 

“They can scope out some of your plays. On the other hand, the scouting opportunity goes both ways.”
Established after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Camp Lemonnier is home to 4,000 personnel. Some are involved in highly secretive missions, including targeted drone killings in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and the raid last month in Yemen that left a member of the Navy SEALs dead. 

The base, which is run by the Navy and abuts Djibouti’s international airport, is the only permanent American military installation in Africa.
Beyond surveillance concerns, United States officials, citing the billions of dollars in Chinese loans to Djibouti’s heavily indebted government, wonder about the long-term durability of an alliance that has served Washington well in its global fight against Islamic extremism.
Just as important, experts say, the base’s construction is a milestone marking Beijing’s expanding global ambitions — with potential implications for America’s longstanding military dominance.
“It’s a huge strategic development,” said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, who has studied satellite imagery of the construction.
“It’s naval power expansion for protecting commerce and China’s regional interests in the Horn of Africa,” Professor Dutton said. 

“This is what expansionary powers do. China has learned lessons from Britain of 200 years ago.”
Chinese officials play down the significance of the base, saying it will largely support antipiracy operations that have helped quell the threat to international shipping once posed by marauding Somalis.
“The support facility will be mainly used to provide rest and rehabilitation for the Chinese troops taking part in escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian rescue,” the Defense Ministry in Beijing said in a written reply to questions.
In addition to having 2,400 peacekeepers in Africa, China has used its vessels to escort more than 6,000 boats from many countries through the Gulf of Aden, the ministry said. 

China’s military has also evacuated its citizens caught in the world’s trouble spots. 

In 2011, the military plucked 35,000 from Libya, and 600 from Yemen in 2015.
As China’s navy has assumed these new roles far from home, its commanders have struggled to maintain vessels and resupply them with food and fuel.
Capt. Liu Jianzhong, a former political commissar of a Chinese destroyer plying the Gulf of Aden, said the lack of a dedicated port in the region took a toll on personnel forced to spend long stretches at sea.

Chinese workers in 2015 at the construction site of a railway linking Djibouti with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. China has financed this and other critical infrastructure projects in Djibouti.

“For six months, we didn’t reach the shore, and a lot of sailors had physical and psychological problems,” he told the state-run China Military Online. 

To that end, the new base will include a gym, the ministry said.
Professor Dutton said Beijing would most likely try to “acclimatize” the world by using the facility for commercial purposes when it begins operating this year and then gradually increase the number and variety of warships that dock there.
“It will be relatively incremental in the forward deployment of naval power. You are not going to see a Yokosuka,” he said, referring to the base for the United States Seventh Fleet in Japan.
In its written answers, the ministry said that China was not budging from its “defensive” military policy and that the base did not indicate an “arms race or military expansion.”
In recent years, China has moved aggressively to increase its power projection capabilities through the rapid modernization of its navy. 

Military spending has soared, with Beijing’s defense budget expected to reach $233 billion by 2020, more than all Western European countries combined, and double the figure from 2010, according to Jane’s Defense Weekly. 

In 2016, the United States spent more than $622 billion on the military, Jane’s said.
These days, Chinese naval vessels, including nuclear submarines, roam much of the globe, from contested waters of the Yellow Sea to Sri Lanka and San Diego.
China’s decision to establish an overseas military installation comes as little surprise to those who have watched Beijing steadily jettison a decades-old principle of noninterference in the affairs of other countries.
The shift is an outgrowth of China’s evolution from an impoverished slumbering introvert to deep-pocketed mercantilist with economic interests across the globe.
Half of China’s oil imports sail through the Mandeb Strait, the choke point off Djibouti that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. 

Across Africa, state-owned companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in railways, factories and mines.
And the millions of Chinese citizens who live and work overseas have come to expect that the government will look out for their interests — a point driven home in recent years when Beijing was forced to rescue Chinese nationals from strife-torn Libya and Yemen.
“The facility in Djibouti is a very interesting lens through which to view China’s growing capabilities and ambitions,” said Andrew S. Erickson, an expert at China’s maritime transformation at the Naval War College and the editor of the book “Chinese Naval Shipbuilding.”
“Not only will it give them a huge shot in the arm in terms of naval logistics, but it will also strengthen China’s image at home and abroad.”
A low-rise encampment built adjacent to a new Chinese-owned commercial port, the 90-acre base is designed to house up to several thousand troops and will include storage structures for weapons, repair facilities for ships and helicopters, and five berths for commercial ships and one for military vessels.
At the base’s front gate recently, Chinese workers in construction helmets waved away a reporter who tried to ask questions. 

China’s Defense Ministry declined a request to tour the site.
American officials say they were blindsided by Djibouti’s decision, announced last year, to give China a 10-year lease for the land. 

Just two years earlier, Susan Rice, the national security adviser under Barack Obama, had flown here to head off a similar arrangement with Russia.
Shortly afterward, the White House announced a 20-year lease renewal that doubled its annual payments for Camp Lemonnier, to $63 million, and a plan to invest more than $1 billion to upgrade the installation.
If the Pentagon’s current base restrictions are any guide, American and Chinese troops are unlikely to be sharing beers any time soon. 

American officials, citing security threats, keep most personnel confined to the 570-acre rectangle of scrubland, which is a 10-minute drive from the center of Djibouti city. 

It is a policy that stirs some discontent among those who often spend yearlong stints at Camp Lemonnier without venturing outside.
By contrast, French military personnel can often be seen jogging through the city and socializing with locals. 

Americans who work for the United States Embassy also live in the community and say they feel little threat to their safety.
Life on base can be monotonous, broken up by visits to the fitness center or meals at the camp’s Subway sandwich outlet. 

Capt. James Black, the camp’s commanding officer, said one of his primary challenges was to provide salubrious distractions for those stationed here. 

The distractions include free Wi-Fi, a movie theater, Texas Hold ’em tournaments and the occasional soccer match with Italian and German troops.
“We’re like a landlocked aircraft carrier,” Captain Black said during a recent tour of the installation, which is blasted in summer by broiling heat. 

“Part of my job is to create opportunities to give people a break and attend to their mental health needs.”
Local residents also crave more face time with the Americans. 

Some say Camp Lemonnier personnel could play a more active role in helping to alleviate Djibouti’s crushing poverty by building schools, painting hospitals or simply taking part in language exchanges.
Others, like Mohamed Ali Basha, the owner of a Yemeni-style restaurant that serves grilled fish and massive discs of baked flatbread, said he would welcome business from military personnel.
“I don’t understand why the Americans are so obsessed with security here, but I would be happy to close the restaurant for them if they would come,” Mr. Basha, 26, said. 

“Just call in advance.”
In interviews, Djiboutian officials expressed little concern that two strategic adversaries would be sharing space in a country the size of New Jersey. 

It helps that the Chinese are paying $20 million a year in rent on top of the billions they are spending to finance critical infrastructure, including ports and airports, a new rail line and a pipeline that will bring desperately needed drinking water from neighboring Ethiopia.
Critics say the surge of loans, which amount to 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, raises concerns about China’s leverage over the Djibouti government should it fall behind on debt payments.
“Such generous credit is itself a form of control,” said Mohamed Daoud Chehem, a prominent government critic. 

“We don’t know what China’s intentions really are.”
But on the city’s dusty, potholed streets, most people are pleased to see China joining the club of a half-dozen foreign militaries that have a presence here, among them Japan, Italy and Britain. 

Also here is a large contingent of French soldiers who stayed on after 1977, when the colony formerly known as French Somaliland gained independence.
Abdirahman M. Ahmed, who runs Green Djibouti International, an environmental social enterprise, said many people viewed foreign militaries as a stabilizing force, given their country’s diminutive size, its lack of resources and the potential threats from neighbors like Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, where expansionist sentiments continue to burble.
“We don’t see any problem having the Chinese here,” he said. 

“They provide revenue and help play a deterrence to those who would love to annex Djibouti.”
The plethora of foreign troops, some say, also served as a bulwark against the jihadist violence that has destabilized other countries in the region. 

Djibouti, whose population of 900,000 embraces a moderate form of Sunni Islam, has not been entirely spared: In 2014, a double suicide bombing at a downtown restaurant popular with foreigners killed a Turkish national and wounded 11 people. 

The Shabab, the Somali-based militant group, later claimed responsibility, saying the attack was motivated by the presence of so many Western troops in Djibouti.
For American military strategists, the security implications of the Chinese base are unclear, though practically speaking, many experts say the military threat is minimal.
“A port like this isn’t very defensible against attack,” said Philip C. Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University. 

“It wouldn’t last very long in a war.”

Japan to expand Djibouti military base to counter Chinese influence

By Nobuhiro Kubo
Japan's Defence Minister Tomomi Inada (front, R) is briefed by senior Self-Defense Forces personnel about their anti-piracy mission off Somalia, in Djibouti, August 15, 2016. 

TOKYO -- Japan will lease additional land next year to expand a military base in Djibouti, eastern Africa, as a counterweight to what it sees as growing Chinese influence in the region, three Japanese government sources said.
China is seeking closer ties with African nations that could help it gain access to natural resources and provide new markets.

Beijing said late last year it would pump $60 billion into development projects on the continent, cancel some debt and help boost agriculture.
Earlier this year, Japan also pledged to increase its support to infrastructure, education and healthcare projects in Africa, committing an extra $30 billion in public and private support.
"China is putting money into new infrastructure and raising its presence in Djibouti, and it is necessary for Japan gain more influence," said one of the sources, with knowledge of the plan.
China in February began construction in Djibouti of its first overseas military facility, a coastal logistics base that will resupply naval vessels taking part in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
Djibouti, which is about the size of Wales, is strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal. 

The tiny, barren nation sandwiched between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, also hosts U.S. and French bases.
Since 2011, a Japanese Self Defence Force contingent of 180 troops has occupied a 12 hectare (30 acre) site in Djibouti, next to Camp Lemonnier, the U.S. base at the country's international airport.
From there, the SDF have operated maritime patrol aircraft as part of an international force, including China, that hunts pirates in the seas of the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia.
A Japanese Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed discussions were taking place.
"In addition to the land Japan has borrowed, it is considering leasing the neighboring land to its east," the spokesman said in response to a Reuters query. 

"Japan is now in negotiations with Djibouti government."
Asked about the plans, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Japan's military and security policies had garnered attention in Asia for historical reasons.
"We hope Japan can draw lessons from history, conform with the times, and truly follow the path of peaceful development," Geng told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
Japan is considering deploying C-130 transport aircraft, Bushmaster armored vehicles and extra personnel to the base but has not yet decided on how many, the sources said.
The size of the extra leased land would be smaller than the existing base and was expected to cost around $1 million a year, they added.
Tokyo will justify the expansion of personnel and aircraft in the Horn of Africa by pointing to a need to have aircraft there to evacuate Japanese citizens from nearby trouble spots or areas hit by natural disasters, the sources said.
Minister of Defence Tomomi Inada traveled to Djibouti in August, where she said Tokyo was considering expanding the "function" of the Japanese base. 

She didn't, however, indicate that new land would be added.
A month earlier Japan sent three C-130 aircraft from Japan to stand by in Djibouti for the evacuation of Japanese citizens trapped by fighting in South Sudan's capital, Juba.
The mission, only the second ever undertaken by SDF transport aircraft, showed the increasing ability of Japan's military to conduct operations far from home.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to give the SDF a greater regional and global role as his nation steps back from seven decades of state pacifism.