BEIRUT: Russia announced yesterday it was renovating a Syrian port for use by the Russian fleet in an effort for a better foothold in the Mediterranean amid the rift with the United States over Georgia.
Syria was Moscow’s strongest Middle East ally during the Cold War. The alliance largely waned after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Russia has continued some weapons sales to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad has increasingly reached out to Russia recently, including seeking weapons and offering broader military cooperation.
Yesterday’s announcement was the first tangible sign of any new cooperation. The Itar-Tass news agency said that a vessel from Russia’s Black Sea fleet had begun restoring facilities at Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus for use by the Russian military.
The two countries’ naval chiefs also met in Moscow yesterday and discussed “further strengthening mutual trust and mutual understanding between the two states’ fleets,” a Russian naval officer, Igor Dygalo, told Itar-Tass.
The Tartus renovations could signal an intention to have a long-term Russian naval presence there. In late August, Russia’s ambassador to Damascus, Igor Belyev, said that Russian ships already patrol the area, but “a new development is that the Russian presence in the Mediterranean will become permanent.”
The Russian Navy’s closest access to the Mediterranean is through the Black Sea, where they have strong naval presence. But that area has seen an increase in NATO naval activity after the Georgia conflict, prompting Russian complaints that NATO has exceeded ship numbers permitted there under international agreements.
