Global Security Newswire

Romania's president on Thursday inked domestic legislation that permits the deployment of U.S. Standard Missile 3 interceptors on the European nation's territory, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 8).

The Romanian parliament last week gave its formal support to the deal  to have SM-3 missiles deployed in 2015 at a former air base not far from the border with Bulgaria, previous reports said. Romanian President  Traian Băsescu said the military facility can now be prepared to host the ballistic missile defense systems.

Romania is one of several NATO states to agree to host U.S. missile interceptors as part of an alliance effort to build a missile defense system capable of protecting Europe from potential ballistic missile strikes from the Middle East. Poland and Spain have agreed to allow interceptors on their territory and Turkey has agreed to host a U.S.-provided long-range radar base. Russia has strongly criticized the NATO missile shield plan, claiming it could be secretly a scheme to undermine the nation's strategic nuclear force (Associated Press/Boston Globe, ​Dec. 15).