British Navy Base in Bahrain set to open in November

Manama : The much anticipated British Royal Navy Base in Mina Salman is set to open next month.

“Britain will open its first permanent military base in the Middle East in over four decades next month,” the Daily Mail reported.

The daily also mentioned that  the multi-million-pound Royal Navy facility in Bahrain will house up to 600 UK military personnel and will be opened by Prince Charles.

The report said that “the base will become the staging-post for Britain in the Middle East and is designed to assert influence over the Arabian Gulf, adding that it’s Britain’s first new permanent military base in the Middle East since 1971. 

Highlighting the importance of the facility, the journal said “The new base will protect ships bringing oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz,” noting to the Iranian threats to close the vital strait back in 2012.

“Although it is too shallow for Britain’s new £6.2billion (around BD2.8 billion) aircraft carriers, the base will be used by special forces and by Navy destroyers, frigates and minehunters to fight extremists in the region and launch missions against the Islamic State terrorist group,” the paper said.

Quoting diplomatic sources, the report mentioned, “The project could save the Defence Ministry millions, because they won’t have to travel back to the UK.” 

It also underlined that the base will be used as a forward operating base and a place to plan, store equipment for naval operations and accommodate Navy personnel, as well as troops from the other services.

The ground breaking ceremony of the British Naval Base in Bahrain was held at Mina Salman in the presence of Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and former British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. 

While speaking to DT News back then, Hammond said: “The new navy base comes to reinsure stability in the Arabian Gulf region and strengthens the 200-year-old British-Bahraini relations.”

Shaikh Khalid told on the sidelines of the event, “This is a joint partnership between us and the UK and we’re proud of having it and happy to be in it. This partnership is to defend against the aggression of all sorts, be it countries aggressing against the region, maritime aggression such as piracy and all sorts of hindering of freedom of navigation in the region, it’s our responsibility to keep it open for the whole world.”

In 2014 when the project was announced, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon commented, “This new base is a permanent expansion of the Royal Navy’s footprint. It will enable Britain to send more and larger ships to reinforce stability in the Gulf.”