U.S. Vice President Joe Biden thanked Romania's President Traian Basescu for "embracing" the new proposal for missile defense system

BUCHAREST, Romania — A U.S. army official in Romania says an American military base near the Black Sea port of Constanta will become a permanent facility in the spring and be jointly used with Romanian forces, AP reported yesterday.

Lt. Col. Daniel Herrigstad says the U.S. government invested $48 million to modernize the base.

Herrigstad told the news agency Agerpres on Friday that the base would initially host up to 1,700 U.S. and Romanian soldiers.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Romania on Thursday to discuss the new missile defense system, and thanked Romania's President Traian Basescu for "embracing" the new proposal.

It is unclear what role, if any, Romania will play in the revamped U.S. missile shield.

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Romanian President Traian Basescu hosted a meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Bucharest. The talks focused on the revamped missile defense system unveiled by Washington last month. On October 22, Biden praised Romania for accepting the new arrangements.

[Joe Biden, U.S. Vice President]:
"I really appreciate your embrace, your government's embrace of the new missile defense architecture that we are introducing into Europe. There is the SM-3... will replace what was originally going to be intended to provide for security. But it will in fact... it is a much better architecture. It has the benefit of protecting Europe physically as well as the United States. And I must tell you I appreciate your almost instant embrace of this new architecture. As well as was embraced by our colleagues in Poland and others. As people look at this... you understood from the beginning, that this makes more sense."

The revamped missile defense system is superior to a previous version that had caused friction with Russia.

Eastern European nations are still getting used to U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to scrap Bush-era plans.

But Russia strongly opposed the new plans, fearing they would neutralize its own nuclear arsenal.

Obama plans to roll out sea-based interceptors first, followed by land-based systems. Under this arrangement, Poland could host SM-3 interceptors targeting short and medium-range missiles.