MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A supply base for the Russian navy at Tartus, Syria, will be expanded to a permanent naval base, Russian Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said Monday.
The current facility, on the Mediterranean Sea between Turkey and Lebanon, has only a single pier, dates to 1977 and the Soviet era, and is used as a repair station and supply center for the Russian navy, its only base in the Mediterranean. Russia's defense effort of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is headquartered at the Hmeymim air base, near the city of Latakia, Syria.