U.S. Promises that Missiles in Romania Will Not Have Warheads

After signing the Ballistic Missile Defense System agreement with Romania, the U.S. State Department affirmed that the M-3 missile interceptors to be deployed in Romania will be strictly defensive. The State Department noted that the missiles will not be armed with explosive warheads, as they destroy their targets by means of a direct strike.

The day before yesterday, the U.S. and Romania signed an inter-governmental agreement on the deployment of elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania. The document was signed in Washington by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Basconschi, during the course of an official visit by Romanian President Traian Basescu to the U.S. The U.S. plans to deploy SM-3 missile interceptors on a Romanian Air Force base in the small town of Deveselu, not far from the Bulgarian border, by 2015. The U.S. State Department estimates that 150-200 military and civilian workers will be employed in the fulfillment of this objective, although the agreement allows for the deployment of up to 500 U.S. troops on the base.

The U.S.-Romanian agreement is part of a NATO plan to establish a European ballistic missile defense system, intended to protect against potential missile threats from such countries as Iran, which former U.S. President George Bush labeled as a “rogue nation” during his tenure. The project provides for the rollout of ship-based elements of the Missile Defense System (radars and missile interceptors) in the Mediterranean Sea beginning in 2011, and the deployment of land-based modules for launching missile interceptors in Romania by 2015 and in Poland by 2018.

Russia has many times signaled its readiness to cooperate with NATO on the European Missile Defense project, but talks in this area have not moved forward. Moscow is asking the U.S. and NATO for firm, legal, binding guarantees that the missile defense systems in Europe will not be directed against Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.