Romania ready to start talks on becoming part of US BMD shield in Europe

Defense Professionals ^ | 01/09/2010 | Luca Bonsignore

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Romanian President Traian Basescu announced last week that his country would accept an US offer to base medium-range interceptor missiles (the proposed land-based version of the SM3 system) as part of the revamped missile defence plans formulated by the Obama Administration in 2009. "Romania has been officially invited by US President Barack Obama to be part of the [new] missile defence system," Basescu said after a meeting of the country's Supreme Defence Council. He stated that talks between Washington and Bucharest on the issue should start in the near future and any agreement will be submitted to Romanian parliament for ratification.

In September 2009 President Obama scrapped earlier plans for Poland and the Czech Republic to host missile shield elements allegedly intended to counter possible strikes from Iran. Under the new plan, the United States would rather place ship-based SM-3s in the North and Mediterranean seas in 2011, and mobile land-based SM-3s in Central Europe by 2015. In October 2009 US Vice-President Joseph Biden visited Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic to promote the new plan. Warsaw and Prague have already expressed their support, but Romania is the first country to take what appears to be a formal commitment. The Romanian Supreme Defense Council’s decision thus marks a “first step” in implementing the Obama administration’s revised missile defence plan to protect against short- and medium-range missiles that could be launched from

[Opinionated Blowhard]

So withdrawal of the missle shield was yet another dangerous, knee-jerk, anti-Bush, Liberal Fantasyland policy of Obama that gets reversed in the face of reality. Way to go, Dopey.