Minister pressed on American use of British bases in Cyprus
A UK minister has been pressed to reveal details about how the United States makes use of the British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) in Cyprus.
Britain has maintained a military presence on Cyprus as part of a deal to grant it independence in 1960.
In a series of written parliamentary questions posed to the UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Alba MP for East Lothian Kenny MacAskill wanted to know more about America’s military involvement on the island.
In one question, Mr MacAskill asked “which countries beside the UK have personnel based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia; and how many personnel from each of those countries are based there”.
Responding on behalf of Mr Wallace, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said: “United States personnel have been stationed at RAF Akrotiri since 1974, when a monitoring operation in support of Middle East peacekeeping arrangements started.
“We do not propose to release the numbers of US personnel participating in current or future operational activities.”
When subsequently asked “which US agencies have personnel based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia” and “at what grade or level are those personnel”, Mr Heappey refused to provide any further details.
In a separate question, Mr MacAskill asked if “any US military equipment is located on the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia” to which Mr Heappey answered that a US Air Force U2 aircraft has been “permanently stationed at RAF Akrotiri since 1974 in support of Middle East peacekeeping arrangements” and that it operates “with the knowledge of all governments directly involved”.
Mr MacAskill also asked “what protocol” the UK’s Ministry of Defence “has in place for handling requests from the US” to use Akrotiri and Dhekelia for military operations and “on how many occasions in 2021 those bases were used for US Air Force bombing missions”.
Mr Heappey replied that “UK authorisation would be required for any operations” involving the use of the SBAs but that “for security reasons we would not comment in any further detail on operations of this nature”.
In response to a question about the annual cost of running the SBAs, Mr Heappey revealed that the cost has risen from just under £17 million in the 2019-2020 financial year to a predicted cost of about £20.58 million in 2022-2023.
“These costs are for Administration only and do not include
costs from other Ministry of Defence sections based in Cyprus such as British Forces Cyprus, Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Director Medical Services, Defence Digital, [and] Director of Children’s Services, which directly/indirectly support the [SBA]
Administration,” Mr Heappey added.
The minister also revealed in response to another question from Mr MacAskill that almost 2,500 UK personnel were permanently assigned to the SBAs as at November 9 of this year, consisting of 2,217 members of the Armed Forces and 273 civil servants.
Mr Heappey added that there are “no personnel permanently based” at the RAF base in the Troodos mountains in South Cyprus “aside from 100 locally employed civilians”.
In a follow-up question asked on Wednesday, Mr MacAskill asked “for what reasons his Department release information on the number of US military personnel in Britain and not at the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus”.
Mr Heappey’s answer said: “As a UK overseas territory run and administered by the [Ministry of Defence], the Sovereign Base Areas are unique within Defence.
“For operational and security reasons, we do not release details of US personnel participating in current or future operations in this specific location.”