USA Bases in Romania

The most influent woman in the world was in Bucharest yesterday. The American state secretary, Condoleeza Rice, signed in Cotroceni the agreement that will allow the presence of American military facilities on the Romanian territory.

After a delay of approximately half an hour, the American State Secretary Condoleeza Rice arrived in Bucharest aboard a special plane that brought her from Berlin. The great Romanian delegation, with officials of the Ministry of External Affairs, of the American Embassy and Romanian sportsmen, have waited a while until being able to welcome Condoleeza Rice, because the arrival was delayed by two reasons, one of them being the dense fog. An employee of the airport who was driving one of the cars that were supposed to attach the ladder attentively watched by the security officers also contributed to the delay . The driver stopped right in front of the first of the three doors of the plane, which was the door for the pilots. In the same time, the flight attendants were opening the other two doors where the members of the American delegations were to step down.

GREETINGS

After she finally got down from the plane, the chief of the American diplomacy greeted the new US ambassador in Bucharest, Nicholas Taubman, and his wife. Then, she seemed pretty affectionate towards External Affairs Minister, Razvan Mihai Ungureanu, whom she kissed after he had offered her a bouquet of red roses. Afterwards, Condoleeza went towards another group formed of Nadia Comaneci and other three members of the national gymnastics team. Two members of the national teams for the Special Olympics joined them. "Very nice to meet you", Rice told them and then she hurried towards one of the 14 official cars. The first destination of the quick visit - the Cotroceni Palace. Here, Rice had a private meeting with President Traian Basescu. "I know you met Nadia", the President told her after he greeted. The private discussion between the two continued with 35 minutes of talks in the presence of the two delegations.

HISTORICAL MOMENT

"A historical success for Romania". This is how the Minister of External Affairs, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, saw the signing of the agreement for the American military facilities in Romania. This moment is to end a long period of negotiations and this is also the end of another round of our close "dispute" with Bulgaria, taking into account that both countries were interested in hosting military facilities and both negotiated for this. The chief of the Romanian diplomacy signed the agreement together with his American counterpart, Condoleeza Rice, who came in Romania especially for this moment. Rice connected her few hours in Bucharest with two other visits. Germany was the first stop in the mini-European tour and, after Bucharest, the American official will arrive in Kiev. The agreement signed in the Cotroceni Palace refers to future American bases, which are to be flexible, and of small dimensions, with a high degree of interoperability and based on the periodic rotation of the soldiers.

TERMS

The document is of political nature and regulates the general environment for the collaboration at military, logistical, juridical and financial levels. The agreement will allow the American forces to use the Romanian territory for training, equipment storage and, in case of necessity, the settlement of the troops and will be followed by a series of specific agreements, that are to be dealt in the coming period of time.

According to the agreement, there is the guarantee that the American military facilities in Romania cannot be used against the international laws and treaties that Romania abides by.

According to Stars and Stripes, the locations in Romania could be prepared to host the American troops in the summer of 2007 the earliest and will include the shooting ranges at Smardan, Babadag and Cincu, as well as the air base at Mihail Kogalniceanu. Officials of the American Defense Department have stated that the bases would be administrated in collaboration with Romania and wouldn’t be like the USA headquarters in Europe, where there are houses for the families of the army men as well as schools and commercial centers. They will only host troops or brigades from time to time. The status of the army men that will be moved on the Romanian territory abides by the NATO-SOFA agreement and the SOFA Additional agreement, which was signed with Romania in October 2001 and rectified by law in 2002.