Moscow and Damascus have signed an agreement on expanding and modernizing Russia's naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, a Russian government document shows.
According to the document published on Russia's official legal information portal on January 20, the deal envisages that 11 Russian warships can be located in the base at one time.
Russia has supported President Bashar al-Assad's government throughout the six-year-old war in Syria and launched a campaign of air strikes in September 2015 to back Assad's forces.
Moscow, a long-time Damascus ally, launched an air campaign in September 2015 to bolster Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad.
The Tartus base and a resupply facility in Vietnam are the Russian navy's only outposts outside of the former Soviet Union.
The Russian military also maintains its presence in Syria at an air base in the coastal province of Latakia.