Syria said on Sunday it had reached an agreement with Russia on the future of two military bases on the Mediterranean coast, with the sites to be turned into joint training centres and parts of them returned to Damascus.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the military facilities at Tartous airport and Hmeimim port would be converted into “joint training centres” under new arrangements designed to protect “mutual interests,” according to the state news agency Sana.
Sana said the deal was the result of 18 months of negotiations and set a deadline of no more than three months to complete the process.
Civilian facilities at both bases will meanwhile be handed over to the Syrian authorities.
Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani visited the sites and infrastructure covered by the memorandum of understanding on Sunday, in what Sana described as a “historic” agreement.
The Hmeimim air base and the naval base at Tartous were Russia’s only official military outposts outside the former Soviet Union. Both remained operational while talks were under way.
Moscow made extensive use of the bases after intervening in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in support of Bashar al-Assad, carrying out heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas.
Since Assad’s fall, Russian President Vladimir Putin has twice hosted his Syrian counterpart, Ahmad al-Chareh, in Moscow. Assad fled to Russia, and Damascus is seeking his extradition.
Earlier this year, the Kremlin withdrew its forces from Qamishli airport in the Kurdish autonomous region in north-eastern Syria.
