Cyprus Calls for Talks Over ‘Colonial’ UK Military Bases on Strategically Vital Island

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said he wants an ‘open and frank discussion with the British government’ about two military bases on the island.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey meets the unidentified British F-35 pilot who shot down a drone as they walk past a fighter jet at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on March 5, 2026. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on March 19 that after the conflict in the Middle East is over, he wants to discuss the future of Britain’s military bases on the island.

The bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia have been UK sovereign territory since a treaty was signed in 1960, when Cyprus was granted independence from the British Empire.