Romania and the United States are making final adjustments to the agreement for setting up American military bases in Romania, prior to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice""s arrival in Bucharest for the signatory ceremony. The US already signed a similar agreement with Bulgaria and eyes south-eastern Romania as the next region where to expand its bases in the region.
"In fact, the negotiations between the two teams ended. The US State Department and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs give the document the final reading, and only small details are yet to be settled. Signing the Agreement would be more an administrative task, really," commented President Traian Basescu yesterday, after meeting Stephen Hadley, adviser on security issues to the US President, George W. Bush.
The small details Basescu referred to are assessing if the Americans will come to Bucharest to sign the Agreement, and for the US Government to decide who will make that trip.
Sources first said that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would come to Bucharest for the signatory ceremony, but later Riceâs name surfaced too.
Stephen Hadley stated that "significant progress had been made in drafting the document. We eagerly wait the speedy approval of this agreement," stated Hadley.
According to Basescu, the Americans zeroed in towards military bases in Babadag-Constanta and Fetesti.
Sources detailed the four bases the Americans envisage settling in are those in Babadag, the Constanta port, the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport and Fetesti.
The American Command Authority would be hosted at Kogalniceanu, where the rotation of American military in Iraq will be coordinated from.
The Americans will use the shooting range at Babadag for training their military prior to international missions, while the airport facilities in Fetesti will be used jointly by the American and the Romanian military.
The military bases will permanently house some 500 military, but could expand for 20,000 military, when need be.
Theodor Atanasiu, the minister of defense, said Romania suggested building the facilities, which will then rent to the US military for ten years, during which time it will recoup its investment.
At the end of the ten-year period, the lease would be renewed, Atanasiu said.
Americans and Bulgarians already convened on the location of the US bases south of the Danube River. By mid December Bulgarian authorities will make public the location of the bases the Americans chose, stated Vesselin Blyznakov, the Bulgarian minister of defense, when he met last week in Washington a State Department delegation headed by Robert Loftis. Novinite wire service states that Loftis, the American negotiator, will arrive in November to Bulgaria to give the agreement the final touches.
Bulgaria, as well as Romania, is a strategic partner of NATO in pursuing its policy towards the Greater Middle East.
Translation by Anca Paduraru
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