I personally think as of now we neither have capability nor courage to go for outside base.
We got Farkhor and Ayni base in Tajikistan some 10 years back. What happened in last 10 years ? NOTHING. Vietnam gave naval base to us, May be Iran will give us Chabbar port for naval purpose also, We can have some footprints in Bhutan, Afghanistan and CAR too. But Only talk but no work. I am tired of listing such news every now and then. When we will do actual work ?? I am sure if China will get an opportunity to have Military base in SL or Bangladesh or Pakistan or even Nepal, Burma - They will pick in no time. Hell, Even they have some strategically base in Burma, SL, Pakistan.
We often talk about Strings of pearls - it's real threat. What's our response ? We will do this and that. Few countries might support us and so on. But Nothing concrete.
I think it's all about capability.
Courage comes when you have capability. Our Economy was pathetic till mid 90's. Our economy performed well only in last 10-15 years. Now our economy is strong. Recently some jurno asked to new IAF chief why we didn't signed the deal of MMRCA 10 years back when we knew MIG21/27 is going to decommissioned soon. He said very gently " We didn't had enough money and neither our economy was so stable that one can project next 10 years growth. Now, we have money and threat too. So, we started our never been before Defence modernization. In next 5-6 years, Our Defence will be quite strong. Even we can face Pakistan + China together with expectation of Draw if not win. Once we complete 1st leg of Defence modernization, Then we will go beyond the border to make some bases. How can we make a base in Tajikistan when We don't have a single quality fighter jets in South India, Andamaan & Nicobaar and most parts of North-East except Assam ?
IMO, we are building strong strategic relation with many like minded countries for FUTURE and same time improving our defence. After few years when our defence will be strong then we will move ahead with past relation which we created going forward. Just my personal opinion