Romania to host 3 batteries of US missiles

Romania has confirmed its intention to host three batteries of US interceptor missiles on its soil as part of Washington’s revamped missile system plan for Eastern Europe.

Bucharest in October expressed readiness to take part in the US missile system plan expected to be operational by 2015.

“This is not a secret. There will be three batteries of eight missiles each,” President Traian Basescu said on Friday during a presentation of the Defense Ministry in the country’s capital, AFP reported.

The announcement has angered Russia, which deems the US plan an infringement of its national sovereignty and a direct threat against Moscow.

In an attempt to reassure Russia, Washington and its allies in the region say the missile system is meant to ward off threats from rogue states like ‘North Korea and Iran.’

“This is a defensive system and it cannot be reversed into an offensive one,” Basescu reiterated.

US President Barack Obama decided last year to drop the missile plan drawn up by former President George W. Bush, which envisaged deployment of elements of the missile system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The new plan stipulates the deployment of medium-range ballistic missile interceptors in Romania while initiating a “phased, adaptive approach” to the plan in Eastern Europe.