| Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC June 18, 2002 Termination of U.S.-UK Agreement on Leased Bases in BermudaOn June 18, 2002, the United States and the United Kingdom signed and exchanged diplomatic notes terminating the U.S. lease of facilities in Bermuda under the March 27, 1941 Leased Bases Agreement between the U.S. and the UK. In a ceremony in the Department of State’s Treaty Room, the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., signed the U.S. note and the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, signed the note for the United Kingdom. The Governor of Bermuda, Sir John Vereker, and the Premier of Bermuda, the Honorable Jennifer M. Smith, also attended the ceremony. In terminating the 1941 Agreement, the United States is relinquishing access to logistical facilities that had been used by the U.S. Navy since the mid-1940s. Additionally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is vacating the Space Vehicle Tracking and Communications Station it has operated there since 1961. The United States and the United Kingdom had been involved in discussions related to Bermuda for the past several years, and mutually determined that termination of the agreement was the most appropriate course of action in light of the withdrawal of NASA -- the last U.S. facility in Bermuda -- this year. |
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