BRITAIN PLANNING PORT AT RAF AKROTIRI IN CASE OF NO DEAL ON BREXIT

Cyprus Mail - article by Staff Reporter 30 August 2018

Britain is drawing plans to expand a port at RAF Akrotiri to service its military bases on the island in case of Brexit without a trade deal with the EU, a report said on Thursday.

According to The Times, plans for the facility at RAF Akrotiri are already being drawn up as part of preparations to limit the impact of Britain leaving the EU without a deal.

Currently, equipment and other goods headed for the British sovereign bases (SBA) on the island go through Cypriot ports. But British officials are concerned that inspections imposed by the EU without a Brexit deal “would seriously threaten operations,” The Times said.

A small port already exists at Akrotiri but it would need considerable expansion to be able to service the SBAs’ needs.

The Times said the MoD is thought to have put a provisional claim on the £1.5bn contingency funds for no-deal preparations for the project.

It quoted unnamed Whitehall source who said the plans were “essentially to extend the RAF port in Akrotiri because it’s too small to be used properly”. They said that the plan was to “basically build a new one”.

“If we had a no deal the port — a Cypriot one — would become extremely problematic whereas the RAF port is considered British territory,” the source said.

In 1960 when Cyprus gained independence, Britain retained 157 square kilometres of sovereign territory at Akrotiri/Episkopi and Dhekelia which are being used as military bases. It also has radar installations on the Troodos mountain and a listening post at Ayios Nicolaos, in Famagusta.

On Wednesday, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was prepared to offer Britain an unprecedentedly close relationship after it quits the EU, but it would not permit anything that weakened the body’s single market.

“We are prepared to offer Britain a partnership such as there never has been with any other third country,” Barnier told reporters in Berlin after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, adding that that could include economic as well as foreign and security policy ties.