(Initially published in http://www.romania-report.ro/ - Mar 11, 2005)
Romanian President Basescu met at the US Senate with the majority leader, Bill First, and at the Pentagon, with Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary. The US high officials both agreed upon the importance of Romania in the context of the Black Sea region security.
At the Pentagon, the now stiff frozen Romanian journalists met a smiling and relaxed Basescu and a likewise Rumsfeld who were in a joking mood and unwilling to give a certain date for the opening of the permanent American military bases in Romania.
Rumsfeld said that the US is not envisaging to relocate big military bases, but to find locations for possible flexible operational units.
Anyway, the United States has to reassess and reposition itself in the world, Rumsfeld added.
The commander of the American land forces in Europe and the supreme commander of NATO, Gen. James Jones, said that Bush administration will start this year talks regarding the location of military bases in Romania. Gen. Jones said that a mobile brigade, of between 3,000 and 5,000 personnel, will be stationed in Romania and Bulgaria.
"We have no intention of setting up permanent military bases in this region," added Rumsfeld. Gen. Jones said that negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria should start shortly and be specific about the details, like ports, air corridors and facilities for the land forces.
In the past, some of the countries which hosted American military bases refused to allow the Americans deploy in conflict areas or to grant facilities for operations they did not approve of.
Gen. Jones said he is not expecting to encounter such problems in Romania or Bulgaria, which he described as two "extremely open" countries.
Romania Report & sources
No comments:
Post a Comment