United States signs an agreement with Spain to have a permanent base to Spanish Moron Air Base 13005156

Posted On
Defence & Security News - Spain
 
United States signs an agreement with Spain to have a permanent base to Spanish Moron Air Base.
Spain has signed an agreement with the US allowing to make its presence at a military base in southwest of the country permanent. Morón Air Base will be now able to station up to 3,000 troops - more than triple the size of the current contingent. The Spanish government approved the deal on Friday, May 28, 2015.
     
Spain has signed an agreement with the US allowing to make its presence at a military base in southwest of the country permanent. Morón Air Base will be now able to station up to 3,000 troops - more than triple the size of the current contingent. The Spanish government approved the deal on Friday, May 28, 2015. U.S. Marines and sailors board a KC-130J Super Hercules on Morón Air Base, Spain, to deploy to West Africa in support of Operation United Assistance, Oct. 8 2014. The Marines and sailors are assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa. U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Gerard R. Farao.
     
United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) recently used Morón Air Base for operations to contain the Ebola outbreak sweeping through West Africa.

The high point of US State Secretary John Kerry’s visit to Madrid on Sunday and Monday will be sealing the agreement. Once signed, the new agreement needs to be ratified by the Spanish parliament.

Morón Air Base is located in Spain’s Andalusia region, the country's southernmost province. The base is less than an hour’s drive from Seville, a city with a population of almost one million.

The bilateral agreement concerning US military presence at Morón Air Base was signed back in 1988 and accords permitting US presence at the base have been renewed on an annual basis.
 

Initially, there were no American troops stationed there. But following a deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya’s Benghazi on September 11, 2012, which claimed the life of US Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans, US troops were allowed on to the Spanish base in April 2013.

Last October, the US asked Spain for the usage of two military bases in its south as ‘stopover points’ in the American mission to control the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The request was granted and the US began utilizing Morón de la Frontera and Rota in Andalusia for its Africa missions.