Gabon’s Chinese naval base plan shrouded in ambiguity amid Western pressures

The plan to build a Chinese naval base in Gabon, as agreed by the country’s ex-ruler Ali Bongo and Beijing in 2023, has stalled after the coup last year, but transitional president Oligui Nguema has cultivated deliberate ambiguity about the project’s future, much to the displeasure of the West.

China’s efforts to seek a military presence in West Africa, allowing it to access the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, have long been known to Western intelligence services, and state officials and have also been reported on by media outlets. Still, US officials were reportedly alarmed by then-president Ali Bongo’s secrete promise he had given to Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Beijing could station military forces in Gabon’s Port-Gentil. After the coup in August 2023, Chinese diplomats were closely watching Oligui Nguema’s first steps, with Beijing’s recent hard-won deal to create a naval base on Gabon’s Atlantic Coast effectively put on ice.

As the Wall Street Journal has reported, the United States considers the Atlantic its strategic front yard and sees a permanent Chinese military presence there as a serious threat to its security. Therefore, following the military coup last summer, US diplomats reportedly urged the new regime in Libreville to rebuff Chinese overtures. But according to a recent analysis in The Diplomat, “it is yet to be determined how the China-Gabon relationship will continue under interim President Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, especially as the US is trying to further undermine this partnership.” The fate of the Chinese naval base on Gabon’s Atlantic coast thus remains shrouded in ambiguity.