Future of British bases in Cyprus ‘not in question’

The future of the United Kingdom’s sovereign bases in Cyprus is “not in question”, the country’s parliamentary undersecretary of state for the armed forces Al Carns has said.

“Our sovereign base in Cyprus is not in question,” he told the country’s parliament, before saying that when the country’s Defence Secretary John Healey had visited the island earlier this month, “the Cypriot national guard reaffirmed that our relationship is closer now than ever before”.

He also stressed the complexity and difficulty of dealing with drone attacks such as that of March 2, when an Iranian-made drone hit the Akrotiri air force base.

“When it involves high and fast ballistic missiles combined with slow and low drones, it is a very complex problem for anyone to deal with, but we are trying to ensure that we come as close to 100 per cent as we can,” he said.

In a separate debate, opposition MP Mark Pritchard had asked whether personnel at Akrotiri have access to “chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear protective kit”.

Healey responded to this question, saying that when he visited Akrotiri earlier this month, “I made a point of asking our base commander if there was anything further he needed from us back in Britain, and he said, ‘I have got everything that I asked for to protect ourselves’”.

Carns’ comments on the future of the bases come amid what opposition MP Al Pinkerton described in the British parliament as “growing disquiet within Cyprus” regarding their presence.

Earlier this month, President Nikos Christodoulides said that “nothing has been ruled out” regarding the bases’ future, while Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou went further, demanding their abolition.

He said that his party has been “emphasising this for decades, calling for the abolition of the bases”, and that “the challenge now is to make it clear at every opportunity that Cyprus is not and does not want to become a war base”.

Opposition to the bases’ existence is bicommunal, too, with Turkish Cypriot opposition political party CTP deputy leader Asim Akansoy having said that the UK’s continued possession of two sovereign bases on the island is “a great mistake of history”.

In the UK, former prime minister Rishi Sunak had said in the aftermath of the drone strike that Cyprus “is only a target because of our sovereign bases there”, while Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said that the government had “consistently” warned that the British bases could become a target in the event of a conflict in the region.

“We’ve consistently communicated that the bases could be a target if things move in a specific direction regionally,” he told British newspaper the Guardian, adding, “this is a concern we shared consistently”.