We Want 48 Multi-Purpose Aircrafts

The Chief of Staff, Eugen Badalan, stated yesterday that Romania is negotiating for purchasing 48 multi-purpose planes, which should replace the MIG-21s, but he denied the negotiations of the purchase of the F-16 planes. The information regarding the possible acquisition of second-hand F-16s by Romania from Israel with a total value of 150 million euros appeared in the Israeli press two days ago.

WE DON’T KNOW FOR SURE. "In the future, on short and medium term, Romania intends to replace the MIG-21s with multipurpose planes. We haven’t decided for a certain type of plain. For now, we made operational requests. We will see the type after the legal procedures will be finished", Badalan said, adding that the acquisition of the 48 planes could happen between 2008 and 2015. Asked if there are any negotiations with other countries, Badalan answered there were "a lot of negotiations with a lot of countries", but, "as long as nothing is finalized or certain, any assertion in this matter is an exaggeration". He showed that, "now, there is no contract and not even negotiations started" for buying F-16 planes. As a matter of fact, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu himself stated for associated Press (AP), quoted by Israeli website Ynet, that Romania is not negotiating with Israel the purchase of F-16 planes, as the Israeli press says. "I don’t know anything about such a deal", AP added.

BUDGET. Badalan made these statements after the meeting of the parliamentary defense commissions, which discussed the budget of the Ministry of National Defense for 2006. With 14 votes "for" and 12 "against", the latter ones coming from then Opposition, the two commissions have approved an amendment through which the defense budget has been increased from 1.98% to approximately 2.1% of the GDP. The supplementary identified sources should come from the capitalization of Ministry’s assets.