Syria said on Sunday (August 9, 2026) that it reached a deal with Russia on the fate of its two bases in the country, which Moscow once used to provide military support to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war.
‘Important step’
President Vladimir Putin has since worked to build relations with the new Islamist authorities in Damascus to secure the future of Russia’s only two official military bases outside the former Soviet Union. Syria has expressed a willingness to cooperate with Moscow, and President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been received by Putin in Moscow twice since taking over.
Syria’s official SANA news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying that the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base would be turned into “joint training and capacity-building centres, within new arrangements that preserve mutual interests”. The memorandum of understanding, which followed a year and a half of negotiations, “set a time limit of no more than three months to complete the process”, SANA said. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani visited the sites on Sunday (August 9) “to inspect the facilities and installations included in the historic memorandum of understanding”, according to SANA. Omar al-Hasri, head of Syria’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the body was taking control of Latakia’s international airport, a civilian facility adjacent to Hmeimim whose operations were closely linked to Russia’s presence. “The Authority’s specialised teams have begun the technical and operational assessment of the airport, its facilities and systems, in preparation for developing a plan to rehabilitate it,” Mr. Hasri said.
