Thu, Mar 11 2010

Progress on bases

Sun, Mar 20 2005 14:00 CET byStaff Reporter 822 Views

THE commander of the United States European command and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General James Jones, said that the US was ready to start negotiations with the new NATO members, Bulgaria and Romania, on setting up US military bases on their territories.
In a report to a US house of representatives committee, Jones said that US officers had made several visits to the two countries and it was time for the start of official negotiations.
He said that the establishing of these bases was a part of the plan for restructuring of US overseas military forces.
Jones said that the US would want to have free access to their forces in Bulgaria and Romania and to able to deploy them to points of military conflict.
Previously the US has had  problems with countries not letting them use their bases for military operations and in directly deploying troops to war zones. The most recent example was the Turkish base Incerlik, which the US could not use for operations against Iraq.
According to Jones, Bulgaria and Romania would not create such problems. He described them as very willing to co-operate.
Meanwhile, NATO has announced plans to invest nearly 59 million euro in the modernisation of the Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer military airfields and to use them as bases for, respectively, tactical fighter aircraft, and transport and refuelling aircraft.

Write comment

Name:Comment:

Generate new code
Send your comment

By posting a comment, you are deemed to have read and agreed to our
Acceptable Use Policy.

More in this category

Court cuts the 50 000 leva bail of former social minister down to 5000 leva

Emilia Maslarova is indicted on charges of embezzling 11 million leva during her term in office

The President-Finance Minister row could become a diplomatic problem, right-wing politician warns

Diplomats have raised concerns that their conversations at the Presidency were being recorded, Assen Agov says

Swiss banks account of Bulgarian tax evaders will be investigated

Authorities are under pressure to uncover tax dodgers.

Homes for disabled children face probe over suspicious mortality rate

Results from the probe, which follows a Bulgarian Helsinki Committee report, will be ready in two months

OLJ to provide votes needed to secure impeachment against Bulgarian President

The impeachment procedure would enable a debate on a new constitution, OLJ reasons.

© 2000-2010, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.