Sovereign bases are exclaves under the full sovereignty of a remote state, typically established through treaties, for the purpose of securely maintaining military installations outside the state’s main national territory.
The term sovereign base is not a formal category in international law[1] with the only extant sovereign bases being Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus.[1] These military bases retained British sovereignty in 1960.[2]
American sovereign bases have been suggested as a part of the solution to the Greenland crisis,[3][4] dispensing with the need to ask permission from Denmark[5] although there are concerns that this is not a stable solution.[6] Other overseas military installations have been compared to sovereign bases, such as Guantanamo Bay,[7] Mayotte[8] and Diego Garcia.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b Hadjigeorgiou 2021.
- ^ “Treaty concerning the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, with annexes and selected exchanges of notes” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ Jakes 2026.
- ^ Harding 2026.
- ^ Stringer 2026.
- ^ Weller 2026.
- ^ Loucaides 2017.
- ^ Donaldson 2016.
- ^ Lilley 2025.
Sources
- Donaldson, Maggy (16 September 2016). “France’s Indian Ocean prize”. Le Monde diplomatique. Le Monde diplomatique. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
- Harding, Thomas (22 January 2026). “Cyprus-style deal for US airbases in Greenland could solve annexation row”. The National. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
- Jakes, Lara (21 January 2026). “Trump Says He Has Framework for Greenland Deal as NATO Mulls Idea of U.S. Sovereignty Over Bases”. The New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
- Hadjigeorgiou, Nasia (2021). “Sovereign Base Areas (SBA)”. Oxford Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
- Lilley, Peter (25 November 2025). “Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill – Committee (2nd Day): Amendments 20L, 20S, 20T, and 63”. Peter Lilley MP. Peter Lilley. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
The most compelling comparison is … between what we are doing now and the reasons given for doing it and the independence of Cyprus, where we severed off the sovereign bases.
- Loucaides, Darren (1 May 2017). “Why are there still British military bases in Cyprus?”. New Internationalist. New Internationalist. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
Arguably, the only other territory with a comparable status is the US base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
- Stringer, Connor (21 January 2026). “Revealed: Trump’s Greenland deal”. The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
- Weller, Marc (23 January 2026). “If Trump’s ‘framework’ Greenland agreement relies on creating ‘sovereign’ bases, it would bring long-term legal issues”. Chatham House. Royal Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved 24 January 2026.