Work is due to start on a new British naval base in Bahrain, a senior official has confirmed.

Outgoing British Ambassador Iain Lindsay told Gulf Daily News that the new facility aims to deter regional threats and maintain security in the Gulf and wider region.

It is expected to accommodate Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and Type 45 destroyers.

“Work on the first permanent British base in the region since 1971 is scheduled to start later in the summer,” Lindsay told the paper.

Lindsay said the base would add to the UK’s already strong defence presence in the region, with military assets including Royal Air Force Tornado aircraft, a remotely-piloted air system, Hercules transport aircraft, air-to-air refuelling and surveillance aircraft.

Britain said in December that it had sealed a deal to expand and reinforce its naval presence in Bahrain that would allow it to operate more and bigger ships in the Gulf on a long-term basis.

Under the agreement, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said onshore facilities at the Mina Salman Port in Bahrain, where Britain bases four mine-hunter warships on a permanent basis, would be improved.

The base, which will now be expanded to include a new forward operating base and a place to plan, store equipment for naval operations and accommodate Royal Navy personnel, is used to support British Destroyers and Frigates in the Gulf.

The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is also based in Bahrain.