MOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that a deal reached with Syria on the future of Moscow's military bases in the Middle Eastern country was an important step that would boost ties between the two countries, the state RIA news agency reported.
The Syrian foreign ministry was cited by Syria's state news agency on Sunday as saying that Syria and Russia had reached a memorandum of understanding to settle the future of Russian bases at Tartous and Hmeimim following 18 months of intensive negotiations.
The ministry was quoted as saying that the Syrian state would take over management of civilian facilities, including Hmeimim airport and the commercial berth at Tartous port, allowing them to be gradually integrated into the country's civilian administration. Military facilities would be repurposed as joint training centres with the transition to be completed within three months.
"We regard the signing on 9 August of the memorandum between the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic on the operation of our bases in Hmeimim and Tartous as an important step aimed at further improving bilateral cooperation in the military sphere," RIA cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying.
‘We believe that reaching this agreement will give further impetus to the development of the full range of relations between our countries, which are based on a long history of friendship and partnership," it added.
A Syrian source familiar with the terms of the deal told Reuters that Russian forces would still be stationed at the new training centres but did not have details on how many would be there."
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Beiru; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva Editing by Andrew Osborn )
