Initially published in www.romania-report.ro -- Nov 17, 2005
BUCHAREST - Romania and the United States have agreed a deal to establish American military bases on the Black Sea, Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may travel to Romania next month to sign the agreement, Basescu told ‘Euronews’ television in an interview posted on the presidency‘s website. "We finalized negotiations regarding the U.S. military facilities on the Black Sea coast and maybe in other areas of Romania," Basescu said.
"Condoleezza Rice may come and visit Bucharest sometime at the beginning of December to sign a bilateral treaty regarding US military facilities in Romania."
Basescu said last month that possible sites for U.S. bases included Babadag, close to the Danube delta, Constanta on the Black Sea, and Fetesti, 125 miles east of Bucharest.
Washington aims to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the next decade and is shifting its European focus eastwards, closing Cold War bases in favor of small, flexible facilities closer to likely hot spots such as the Middle East.
The bases are seen as important in Romania‘s drive to secure more foreign investment to close the enormous wealth gap separating it from the European Union , which it is due to join as early as 2007.
Romania has been a NATO member since 2004. U.S. soldiers used an airbase at Kogalniceanu in southeastern Romania as a hub to send equipment and 7,000 combat troops into Iraq during the early stages of the 2003 invasion, and temporarily kept up to 3,500 American troops there.
Neighboring Bulgaria has also been promoting its airfields and bases as a possible hub for U.S. forces in Europe. Today, Bulgarian ‘Novite’ press agency reads that Washington and Sofia are leading a final stage of negotiations concerning the US bases in Bulgaria, as Adam Ereli (Deputy Spokesman at the Department of State) announced.
The U.S. were aware that Bulgaria could not ensure public support for the project at the moment, Ereli said. He added that the States were closely following the opinion of the Bulgarian society.
We value Bulgaria as a friend and need it as an ally, Ereli said, and underlined that he hoped that in the end the agreement would be to the advantage of both sides. According to Ereli the US and Bulgaria were close allies and collaborators, and together they solved problems in the sphere of security, politics and economy.
Erely did not comment whether Washington would abandon the idea of building military bases in Bulgaria if the latter refuses to waive its right to forbid the USA to conduct combat actions from the bases.
Romania Report staff and sources
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