Reports in the international press last week suggested that after talks with NATO leaders, US President Donald Trump may be weighing the establishment of American military bases in Greenland, modeled on the United Kingdom’s long-standing bases in Cyprus.
That arrangement dates to 1960, when Cyprus gained independence from Britain. The Treaty of Establishment creating the Republic of Cyprus also carved out two areas — Akrotiri and Dhekelia — that would remain under British sovereignty. Together they cover 254 square kilometers (98 square miles), roughly 3% of the island.
Under the treaty the UK was not required to pay rent for the bases but did agree to provide a grant to the new republic; Cypriot archives show that grant was paid only for five years, with Britain suspending payments in 1965, citing changed circumstances after intercommunal violence.
Conflict on the island escalated into a decade of communal strife and culminated in 1974 with a Greek-backed coup and a Turkish military intervention that left Cyprus divided between the Republic of Cyprus (an EU member) in the south and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north, which lacks international recognition.
More than six decades after independence, Akrotiri and Dhekelia remain under full British control. They have their own administration, laws and courts; the British Forces Cyprus act as local authority and report directly to the UK Ministry of Defence. The Administrator of the Bases can enact laws “for the peace, order and good governance” of the areas.
When Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, the status of the bases was preserved in Protocol No. 3 to the Accession Treaty, which excludes the Sovereign Base Areas from the application of the EU acquis communautaire. In practice the bases are therefore outside the body of EU legislation that applies in the rest of Cyprus.
The Treaty of Establishment also places limits on how the SBAs may be used: sovereignty is not absolute. As Costa Paraskeva, professor of public law and human rights at the University of Cyprus, notes, the UK “assumed specific and explicit obligations not to undertake certain actions within the bases.” The treaty forbids development of the areas for purposes other than military ones, bars customs barriers between the Republic and the bases, disallows commercial or industrial enterprises inside them, and prohibits construction of civilian ports or airports. Entry and exit between the bases and the Republic of Cyprus remain unrestricted.
Estimates put the population of the SBAs at around 18,000 people, of whom roughly 11,000 are Cypriot citizens; the rest are British military personnel and their families. Cypriots who were resident when the areas were designated in 1960 continued to live there, and the lack of border controls means daily life for those residents is not severely disrupted.
Although many military activities involving the bases are not publicly detailed, British media and other reporting have linked Akrotiri and Dhekelia to operations involving RAF forces and Nato allies in conflicts including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Gaza. On such occasions the Republic of Cyprus routinely distances itself from actions launched from the SBAs, noting that it has no control over them. In 2024 government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Cyprus was “not involved in military operations” and pointed out that, under the Treaty of Establishment, “Britain is not obliged to inform the Cypriot authorities of activities carried out within the Bases.”
Public opinion in Cyprus reflects continued unease about the bases. Anti-war demonstrations and the revived post-colonial slogan “Bases out of Cyprus” remain the most visible expressions of discontent. The issue, however, is not a dominant plank of mainstream party platforms, though some politicians and legal figures have called for updating the arrangements.
Former attorney-general Costas Clerides has argued the bases’ status is “unacceptable as it constitutes a remnant of colonialism.” He has urged consultations with Britain to negotiate agreements that would amend the SBAs’ status. Clerides points to legal developments elsewhere — notably the International Court of Justice’s 2019 advisory opinion in Mauritius v. United Kingdom and a subsequent UN General Assembly resolution concerning the Chagos Archipelago — as precedents that might strengthen Cyprus’s case in pushing for change.
The renewed global discussion about basing in places such as Greenland has revived interest in the Cyprus model: how a former colonial power retains sovereign military footholds on independent territory, how those areas are governed and limited by treaty, and how the host state and local populations live alongside them. Whether the US will pursue an approach similar to the UK’s bases in Cyprus remains a matter of international debate and domestic politics in the countries involved.