The new Syrian government has terminated an investment agreement with a Russian company to manage the port of Tartus, where Russia’s only foreign naval base is located.

Tartus Customs Director Riyad Judi told Al-Watan.

He noted that after the port management is returned to the Syrian side, the outdated mechanisms (probably referring to port infrastructure and equipment – Ed.) used by the Russian company without modernization will be restored, although the agreement provided for this.

According to him, now all revenues from the management of the Tartus seaport will go to the “benefit of the Syrian state,” and the workers who work there will return to the control of the Syrian side.

According to Radio Svoboda, in 2019, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said that Moscow and Damascus had agreed to lease the Tartus port to Budtransgaz for 49 years.

This company was supposed to invest $500 million in developing the Syrian port. However, it is not known how much of this amount was invested.

The then-Syrian authorities also expected to increase the port’s productivity from 4 to 38 million tons annually.

Tartus is home to Russia’s only foreign naval base. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Russians brought a significant number of trucks with evacuation equipment here.

Yesterday, the Russian ship Sparta II, known for transporting Russian weapons, entered the military unit of the port of Tartus. The ship had been off the coast of Syria for the past few weeks without permission to enter. And now it is likely to join the withdrawal of the Russian military contingent from Syria.

The Tartus Naval Base

The Tartus Naval Base on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean Sea had been owned by the USSR since 1971. After its collapse, it became Russian property and was used to a limited extent to replenish fuel and supplies for Russian Navy ships.

With the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2012, the Russian Navy started actively using the base, which had been modernized to accommodate large displacement ships.

After the outbreak of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the base became an important hub for the Russian Navy’s military presence in the Mediterranean.