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On April 5, Bahrain’s state news agency BNA reported that Britain had opened the permanent military base in Bahrain.

The British first established the military base in Bahrain in 1935, but the U.S. took over the base after Bahrain gained its independence from the British Empire in 1971. The re-establishment of the British base was announced in 2014 and the construction started a year later.

Meanwhile, the US newspaper “the Washington post” reported that the UK Naval Support Facility could house up to around 500 Royal Navy personnel, including sailors, soldiers and airmen, in a region where maritime security ensured oil shipments and goods.

“The aim of the Royal Navy being out here anyway is to enhance and ensure the maritime security in the region, and whether or not that’s law and order on the high seas, countering piracy, countering terrorism, making sure that the high seas are all safe for the free-flow of commerce, the free flow of trade to be able to take place,” said the UK Maritime Component Commander Steve Dainton to the Washington post.

An interesting fact, on April 4, Bahrain’s Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed officially announced at the press conference the discovery of 80 billion barrels of shale oil in the country. The oil was discovered in the offshore Khalij Al-Bahrain Basin, which covers about 2,000 square kilometers in shallow waters of Bahrain’s western coast. This finding, if confirmed and developed, could make the once-marginal oil producer potentially a major player in the international market.

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