MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. The permanent base for Russian Navy ships that will be established in Abkhazia’s Ochamchira Bay will help improve the defense capabilities of the two countries, head of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Committee on Defense and Security Viktor Bondarev said.

"Amid the ongoing geopolitical events, it [the base] will increase the defense capabilities of both Russia and Abkhazia," the senator wrote on his Telegram channel.

He also recalled that Ochamchira Bay had been used throughout the 2000s as a joint base for civilian ships and boats of the Abkhazian Navy. "Now, there are patrol ships and coast guard boats of the FSB Border Guard Service there," Bondarev wrote.

Earlier, the republic's President Aslan Bzhania said in an interview with Izvestia that an agreement had been signed to set up a new permanent home base for the Russian Navy in Abkhazia.