Radio România Internațional

Tag: military base

  • New aircraft for the European F-16 Training Center hosted by Romania

    New aircraft for the European F-16 Training Center hosted by Romania

    Three aircraft of the Dutch Air Force landed last week at the F-16 Training Center in Fetești. The Dutch Minister of Defense, Kajsa Ollongren, also arrived in Romania on board one of them. The Dutch planes were accompanied in the Romanian airspace by two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Forces, one of which carried the Romanian Minister of Defense, Angel Tîlvăr. The aircraft landed at the 86th Air Base in Fetești, where the two officials discussed the security situation in the Black Sea region. In the European Training Center there are now 8 Dutch F-16 aircraft used for the training of the Romanian pilots and of those of allied and partner countries.

     

     

    On the other hand, the US Ambassador to Romania, Kathleen Kavalec, met with the American and Romanian soldiers stationed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base (southeast). Kavalec said that the presence of American soldiers at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Base is a symbol of the commitment of the United States to the security of Romania and the Alliance.

     

    My visit is intended to support Romania’s defense modernization efforts, including here, at the Mihail Kogălniceanu base, that hosts a large contingent of American forces, the largest contingent in Romania, said Katleen Kavalec.  Also, at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Base, five Eurofighter jets of the Spanish Air Force and a detachment of about 70 soldiers were deployed for aerial surveillance missions, after four of the six British fighter planes in our country were repositioned closer to the area of ​​Iran’s recent drone and missile attack on Israel.

     

    A group of soldiers from the 95th Air Base in Bacău (northeast) along with a French detachment participated in the VAMPIREX 24 exercise, held in the Secondary Combat Training Center Smârdan, Galati County (east). Also last week, in the Capu Midia range in Constanța county (south-east), a tactical exercise with live firing was held, in which the M-LIDS (Mobile-Low Integrated Defeat System), an anti-drone air system, was integrated into the military maneuvers carried out by the Romanian and US Armies. With the help of this system, the soldiers were able to identify, track and destroy the threats, using a combination of electronic warfare and high-caliber machine guns, according to a press release of the American Embassy in Romania. The deployment of the anti-drone air system in Romania is very important, M-LIDS being the newest anti-drone system of the US military that ensures successful countermeasures against enemy drones.

     

    SEA SHIELD 24, the biggest exercise of the Romanian Naval Forces this year, came to an end on Sunday, after two weeks of actions carried out by over 2,200 soldiers, of whom almost 400 foreign soldiers, with 135 technical means. Planning and conducting combat actions, combating illegal actions at sea and river, control of maritime and river traffic and search and rescue at sea, in keeping with NATO standards and in the context of current security threats, were practiced. (EE)

     

     

  • February 14, 2017

    February 14, 2017

    PARLIAMENT – In a plenary meeting today the Senate of Romania unanimously endorsed an emergency government decree that repeals the controversial amendments of the criminal codes, which generated the current political crisis in Bucharest. The draft is now sent to the Chamber of Deputies. The Government building was once again picketed last night by over 1,500 protesters. For two weeks, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in the country and abroad have been demanding the resignation of the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania. They accuse the Cabinet of amending the criminal codes in order to exempt influential politicians and local and central administration officers from criminal liability. Concurrently, several hundreds of supporters of the Government request the resignation of President Klaus Iohannis, who they claimed has stepped out of his role as a mediator by joining in the anti-government protests. A referendum regarding the fight against corruption has been initiated by the President, and was approved on Monday by the Senate.



    STATE BUDGET – The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, has voiced concern today, after discussing in Bucharest with PM Sorin Grindeanu and the Finance Minister, Viorel Ştefan, about the state budget bill and the social security budget bill, sent to the President for promulgation. The head of state sees the 2017 state budget as problematic, because the budget deficit risks exceeding 3%. In his opinion, the budget bill relies on overestimated revenues and very high expenditure. Yesterday the European Commission estimated that this year Romanias budget deficit would account for 3.6 of the GDP, which might lead to the initiation of the excessive deficit procedure. On the other hand, the economic growth forecast for Romania was improved to 4.4%, which is nonetheless below the 5.2% rate estimated by the Government.



    DEFENCE – Romania will continue to make a contribution to ensuring European and Euro-Atlantic security, in line with its commitments, and proof in this respect are both the allocation of 2% of the GDP to defence, and the American military presence in the country. The statement was made by the Foreign Minister, Teodor Meleşcanu, after the arrival of 500 American troops who will be stationed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base in south-eastern Romania for 9 months. The American military also bring the equipment required in order for them to take part, jointly with Romanian troops, in the military exercises planned for this year. The deployment of American troops is intended to strengthen NATOs eastern flank.



    CORRUPTION – The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest has today postponed for March 28 the trial of the case in which the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and head of the ruling Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, is charged with instigation of abuse of office. According to the National Anti-corruption Directorate, Dragnea ordered the fictitious employment of two members of his party with the Directorate General for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Teleorman County in the south. The two were paid from public funds although they were actually working for the Social Democratic Party alone. Last year Dragnea received a suspended two-year prison sentence, for having attempted in 2012 to rig a referendum to dismiss then-president Traian Băsescu.



    RESIGNATION – The US President Donald Trumps national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned last night over a scandal concerning his telephone contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the USA prior to Trumps inauguration. According to France Presse, in late December, as the Barack Obama administration was ordering sanctions against Russia for its presumed interference with the US elections, Michael Flynn was assuring the Russian Ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, that president-elect Donald Trump would be a lot less strict in this respect. Îin his resignation letter, Michael Flynn admits to having “inadvertently briefed vice-president elect Mike Pence and others with incomplete information regarding his phone calls with the Russian diplomat.



    TENNIS – Romanias womens tennis team will play against Great Britain at home on April 22 and 23, in the playoffs for Fed Cup World Group II. The drawing was held in London on Tuesday. Last weekend Romania was defeated in Bucharest by Belgium, 3-1, in the first round of World Group II. The national team now has to play to keep its spot in the second group. Fed Cup is the most important international team competition in women’s tennis.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • : Deveselu on the Security Map

    : Deveselu on the Security Map

    Under the new agreement that Romania and the US signed in 2011, the base at Deveselu, in southern Romania, has entered a new stage in the building of the anti-ballistic missile shield, declared operational in mid-December 2015. It uses SM-3 interceptors aimed at protecting south-eastern Europe. This is the most important project for defending Romania against concrete threats since the country joined NATO in 2004.



    Doina Saiciuc, Radio Romania correspondent in Washington, explains: “Romania has become the first country in the world to host a land-based SM-3 interceptor ballistic missile defense system able to intercept medium and short range ballistic missiles. At Deveselu we have 24 such missiles, defending NATOs southeastern flank against ballistic threats. The American anti-ballistic system in Europe was designed in stages, the first aiming at protecting the south east of Europe with radars and ship-based SM-3 missiles. An advanced radar station was installed to detect ballistic launches. The second stage aims to expand protection for NATO members by putting into operation a new generation of land based SM-3 missiles, and a new radar station. In the third stage, planned for 2018, the system will be covering all European NATO members, by placing a new land base in Poland, as well as by continuing to develop the SM-3 ship and land based missile.”



    Ambassador Bodgan Aurescu, Romania’s chief negotiator of the agreement for installing elements of the American anti-missile shield in Romania, recalled that in September 2009, President Obama announced changes to the concept of anti-missile defense. This provided for a different approach than the previous Republican administration, resulting in a different deployment as against the previous design of the shield. Instead of placing land-based interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland were picked for deploying the SM-3 interceptors, which uses kinetic energy to destroy its target.



    Bogdan Aurescu explains the reasons why Romania was picked to host elements of the American anti-missile shield: “Romania has been chosen to install the anti missile system, because it is the location that best suits the need to protect allied territories, populations and forces from prospective hostile missile attacks from outside the Euro-Atlantic area, mainly from the Middle East. The location has been chosen in Romania and not in other allied countries in the region, precisely for some geographic advantages and for Romania’s political and social stability, because we were already building this very important bilateral strategic partnership.”



    East of Romania, Russia is keeping wary eyes on the building of the anti-missile shield, which it considers a threat to its security. In spite of the fact that both Bucharest and Washington, as well as NATO have on numerous occasions stated the defensive character of the shield, Moscow has repeatedly said the deployment of the anti-missile shield will affect the global strategic balance and will create threats to its security, which will force it to take measures in response.



    Here is Bogdan Aurescu again: “The declarations made by the Russian Federation are not new. They were made right from the very beginning, at the moment the project started gaining consistency and we advanced to the implementation of the agreement. But these threats that Moscow is making constantly should not worry us, because Romania, as a NATO member state, is perhaps better protected than it has ever been in its modern and contemporary history. And, from another standpoint, we enjoy the guarantees provided by the Strategic Partnership with the United States. In the end, these concerns that Russia is constantly expressing and which are clearly dismissed by the statements made constantly by Romania, the US and NATO, both directly and publicly, come to confirm, through a permanent American presence at the Base in Deveselu that Bucharest will never return to another sphere of influence.”


    And, Bogdan Aurescu points out, this may be the most important symbolic element brought in by the anti-missile shield project.