The authorities in Damascus and Moscow signed a memorandum of understanding this Sunday that will allow Russia to maintain two military bases on the Syrian Mediterranean coast, the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base, with a “redefinition” of functions.

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With this new memorandum announced today by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs -reproduced by the official Syrian news agency SANA-, “the process of reorganizing the Russian presence on the Syrian coast” will begin, where Damascus will assume the management of civilian facilities -mainly Hmeimim airport and the fourth commercial pier of the port of Tartus- to gradually integrate them into civilian administration.

Syria, Russia agree to convert military bases to joint training centers

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Russia’s Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base will be converted into “joint training and capacity-building centres” under a new arrangement reached after 18… pic.twitter.com/Ftr6KbuXUO

— NewsTongue (@NewsTongueX) August 9, 2026

This marks the end of “a year and a half of intense negotiations and talks” between the new Syrian authorities and Russia, which intervened militarily in the Syrian war in 2015 at the request of Al-Assad, overthrown in December 2024 and exiled in Moscow ever since.

The military bases will become, according to the text, “joint training and rehabilitation centers,” a process that must be completed within a maximum of three months.

“This step is the most significant since negotiations began approximately a year and a half ago, and opens the door to a new stage in Syrian-Russian relations,” added the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

For his part, the president of the Syrian General Authority for Civil Aviation and Air Transport, Omar Hosari, confirmed that today the Syrian government has received Latakia International Airport, adjacent to Hmeimim, which “represents an important step in the process of recovery and commissioning of Syrian airports and their reintegration into the national civil aviation system.”

He indicated that the specialized teams of the authority have begun the technical and operational evaluation of the airport, its facilities and systems, in order to prepare a rehabilitation plan.

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