[2] The port is part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the south via the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the North Sea.

[6][7] The port is named after Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, the grandfather of the current King.

[8] The Manama harbour, where Mina Salman is now located, was first mentioned in Islamic texts that have been dated to 1345 AD.

[10][11] This led the Bahraini government to launch a series of expansions in the next decade, including the opening of the Mina Salman Container Terminal in 1979.

[5] On 6 December 2014, the United Kingdom's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced that an agreement had been signed with Bahrain to establish a permanent Royal Navy base at Mina Salman, HMS Jufair.