BUCHAREST - The United States and Romania announced plans Tuesday to install missile interceptors at a former air base in the south of the Balkans country for a future defense shield, the first such deployment in Europe.
The two governments have been negotiating for more than a year about the deployment of ballistic missile interceptors, which should be operational by 2015, and the announcement came in a televised address.
"We have decided that the anti-missile shield will be deployed at the former airbase at Deveselu, in Olt County," Romanian President Traian Basescu said.
The airbase, which will remain under Romanian command, will host an average of 200 U.S. troops and up to a maximum of 500.
The choice was made after a detailed analysis of some 120 parameters that should meet the highest security requirements, Basescu stressed.
Washington originally planned to install an anti-missile shield in Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic, aimed at countering feared attacks from Iran.
In September 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped that project, which had been pushed by his predecessor George W. Bush and enraged Russia.
Washington has since reworked the scheme and signed a new treaty with Moscow on reducing strategic nuclear weapons. Russia has said it reserves the right to withdraw from the treaty if Washington presses ahead with missile defense systems in Eastern Europe in a way that Moscow opposes.
But Basescu once again stressed that the shield was "purely defensive and not directed against Russia."
He added that the interceptors would be part of a missile shield that NATO plans to develop in the coming years.
"This is the highest level of security Romania can attain," Basescu said.
Romanian officials had previously said that the Balkan country was to host 24 SM3-type interceptors.
Basescu's announcement coincided with the start of a visit by Ellen Tauscher, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. Tauscher and Romanian officials were to visit the airbase later in the day.
The U.S. official said after meeting with Basescu that Washington was grateful for help from allies such as Romania in the fight against terrorism.
Basescu also announced that U.S. troops and military equipment bound for Iraq and Afghanistan would transit a Romanian airbase and a harbor on the Black Sea.
"We have approved the use of the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport and of the harbor of Constanta for the transit of U.S. troops and equipment going to Iraq and Afghanistan and back to Europe," Basescu said in his televised address. "Kogalniceanu and Constanta will thus become two strategic sites for the U.S. as well as for Romania."
Constanta is the main Romanian sea harbor.
Basescu said the Kogalniceanu airbase, used by U.S. troops during the war in Iraq, will also temporarily shelter four U.S. tankers and four Hercules C-17 aircraft.
A close ally of the U.S., Romania was among the first countries to join the international forces deployed in Iraq and currently has 1,770 troops in Afghanistan.
The two governments have been negotiating for more than a year about the deployment of ballistic missile interceptors, which should be operational by 2015, and the announcement came in a televised address.
"We have decided that the anti-missile shield will be deployed at the former airbase at Deveselu, in Olt County," Romanian President Traian Basescu said.
The airbase, which will remain under Romanian command, will host an average of 200 U.S. troops and up to a maximum of 500.
The choice was made after a detailed analysis of some 120 parameters that should meet the highest security requirements, Basescu stressed.
Washington originally planned to install an anti-missile shield in Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic, aimed at countering feared attacks from Iran.
In September 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped that project, which had been pushed by his predecessor George W. Bush and enraged Russia.
Washington has since reworked the scheme and signed a new treaty with Moscow on reducing strategic nuclear weapons. Russia has said it reserves the right to withdraw from the treaty if Washington presses ahead with missile defense systems in Eastern Europe in a way that Moscow opposes.
But Basescu once again stressed that the shield was "purely defensive and not directed against Russia."
He added that the interceptors would be part of a missile shield that NATO plans to develop in the coming years.
"This is the highest level of security Romania can attain," Basescu said.
Romanian officials had previously said that the Balkan country was to host 24 SM3-type interceptors.
Basescu's announcement coincided with the start of a visit by Ellen Tauscher, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. Tauscher and Romanian officials were to visit the airbase later in the day.
The U.S. official said after meeting with Basescu that Washington was grateful for help from allies such as Romania in the fight against terrorism.
Basescu also announced that U.S. troops and military equipment bound for Iraq and Afghanistan would transit a Romanian airbase and a harbor on the Black Sea.
"We have approved the use of the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport and of the harbor of Constanta for the transit of U.S. troops and equipment going to Iraq and Afghanistan and back to Europe," Basescu said in his televised address. "Kogalniceanu and Constanta will thus become two strategic sites for the U.S. as well as for Romania."
Constanta is the main Romanian sea harbor.
Basescu said the Kogalniceanu airbase, used by U.S. troops during the war in Iraq, will also temporarily shelter four U.S. tankers and four Hercules C-17 aircraft.
A close ally of the U.S., Romania was among the first countries to join the international forces deployed in Iraq and currently has 1,770 troops in Afghanistan.
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