Southeast European Times
November 14, 2013
NATO anti-missile system in Romania to strengthen Europe’s security
By Paul Ciocoiu
Bucharest: NATO has resumed building a military base in Romania with the construction of an anti-missile shield to protect the European countries from the ballistic threats stemming from the restive Middle East, especially from rogue states like Iran, officials and experts in Bucharest told SETimes.
“Missile threats to alliance territory and populations are real and growing,” NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow said at the ceremony at Deveselu Air Base in southern Romania. “NATO’s defence against these threats must be real, too. And it must be able to grow and adapt as the threat evolves.”
“Romania has joined the NATO member states club which will ensure one of the most perfected solutions against the real threat which the ballistic missile represents,” Romania’s President Traian Basescu said at the ceremony.
Officials in Bucharest said the Deveselu air base will host 24 SM-3 interceptors that will be connected with other anti-missile facilities in Turkey, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Once functional, the system in Romania will represent the second phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach, after an initial stage, a radar station in Turkey, was launched last year.
“What is now going on in the Middle East shows an unstable and unpredictable environment,” Dan Dungaciu, director of the Institute of Political Sciences and International Relations of the Romanian Academy, told SETimes…
Ioan Mocioalca, chairman of the defence committee of the Chamber of Deputies, said the main threats the international community faces are coming from North Korea and Iran.
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“By joining this project, Romania has proven it is a serious, credible and predictable partner [of NATO] in this part of Europe,” George Scutaru, a lawmaker in the defence committee of the Chamber of Deputies, told SETimes.
The Deveselu base will be operational and integrated in the NATO system by the end of 2015….
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