By N. C. Bipindra

New Delhi: India lost a key strategic depth it had with an air base at Ayni in Tajikistan, as it was forced to shut down and leave with all its military assets recently.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) had to pack up lock, stock, and barrel from Ayni air base, just 15 kilometres west of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, according to two senior officials in the Indian government.

“We have exited the Ayni air base,” one of the two officials told Defence Capital. “India no longer has a presence there,” the official said.

Tajikistan asked India to move out of the Ayni air base, also called the Gissar air base, a few months ago, the officials said. However, they did not share more details on the timelines.

Why did India offer Sukhoi combat jets to Tajikistan?

The developments came even as India offered Tajikistan a few Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets from its state-run military aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Yet, the offer did not cut much ice with Tajikistan, the officials said.

India has licensed-produced around 270 Su-30 jets at its Nasik unit, which was recently converted into a Tejas Mk1A fighter jet and HTT-40 advanced trainer jet manufacturing facility.

Was Ayni unavailable to India during Operation Sindoor?

It is believed that the Ayni air base was unavailable to India during Operation Sindoor, the May 2025 Indian military operations targeting terror camps and military bases of Pakistan. And, in all probability, the air base in Tajikistan was vacated by India much before the 2025 conflict with Pakistan.

Ayni was once an unused facility that was active during the Cold War era, with the erstwhile USSR operating the air base. India got a presence at Ayni air base nearly 25 years ago, when Tajikistan permitted it to have an air force outpost there.

How was India at Ayni a pressure point on Pakistan?

Ayni air base, under the IAF, emerged as one of India’s most strategically significant pressure points against Pakistan over the last two decades. India initially invested around USD 70 million in developing the Ayni air base into a usable fighter jet facility.

India, in 2010, expanded the air strip at Ayni for fighter operations and reportedly based some of its Sukhoi jets there since 2015, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Tajikistan.

Ayni air base had nearly 150 personnel, including Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for the construction and maintenance of the facility, deployed there.

Was China, Russia responsible for India vacating Ayni?

But recent geopolitical machinations — suspected to be by India’s northern rival China, and its all-weather strategic partner Russia — led to Tajikistan asking India to vacate the air base.

China, which shares a 470-odd km border with Tajikistan, found the presence of India in Ayni a pain in the wrong place. Russia has always held that it would not like a non-regional nation having military air assets in a location that was once its domain.

When did India officially talk about the Ayni air base?

India and Tajikistan have never officially acknowledged Ayni air base was being operated by the IAF. However, Ayni has been spoken of as India’s first overseas military assets in Central Asia by strategic affairs experts for a long time.

Then President of India Ramnath Kovind was the first Indian Head of State to tour the Ayni air base in October 2018 during his visit to Tajikistan. India also operates a hospital at Farkhor on the Tajik-Afghan border, where legendary Afghan political leader Ahmed Shah Masood was treated.

Tajikistan is a close strategic partner of India, and both nations have a strong presence in the region’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), dominated by China and Russia.

During the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, India had utlised its presence in Ayni air base to evacuate Indians and other nationals out of the war-torn nation by transporting them by road to the Tajikistan border.

(Updated with the last paragraph on India’s use of Ayni air base in 2021.)

NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on Arattai.
NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on Telegram.
NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on WhatsApp.