British Prime Minister Kir Starmers will pay a visit to Cyprus next Tuesday and hold talks with Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides.

Kir Starmer will be visiting the Arabian Gulf countries and will also visit Cyprus on his return to Britain. It is the first visit by a British Prime Minister to the island since 1971, when Edward Heath paid a visit. There was another visit by John Major in 1993 but that was part of a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.

According to British media, Starmer’s visit has to do with the wider instability in the region and the role of the British Bases.

London is concerned about the future of the two sovereign bases it maintains in Cyprus, which are relics of the colonial era. Following the 2019 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which ruled that the bases Britain maintained in the Chagos Islands in Mauritius violated international law, London is also concerned about the future of the bases in Cyprus.

Of course in Cyprus there is a difference, as the British bases were retained under the 1960 agreements and bear the signatures of Greece and Turkey, but also of Archbishop Makarios.