BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania and the United States have agreed to a deal to establish American military bases on the Black Sea, Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may travel to Romania next month to sign the agreement, Basescu told Euronews television in an interview posted on the presidency's Web site. "We finalized negotiations regarding the U.S. military facilities on the Black Sea coast and maybe in other areas of Romania," Basescu said. He did not give an exact location for the new facilities.
Basescu said last month that possible sites for U.S. bases included Babadag, close to the Danube delta, Constanta on the Black Sea, and Fetesti, 125 miles east of Bucharest. Washington aims to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the next decade and is shifting its European focus eastwards, closing Cold War bases in favor of small, flexible facilities closer to likely hot spots such as the Middle East.
The bases are seen as important in Romania's drive to secure more foreign investment to close the enormous wealth gap separating it from the European Union, which it is due to join as early as 2007. Romania has been a NATO member since 2004. |