BUCHAREST (Romania), October 19 (SeeNews) – The U.S. is spending more than $100 million (67 million euro) to build new military bases in EU members Bulgaria and Romania, despite scrapping plans of a missile-defence shield in other parts of eastern Europe, U.S. Stars and Stripes daily reported on Saturday.
The Pentagon is spending $50 million for a military base in Romania that could house 1,600 U.S. troops, and another $60 million in a facility for 2,500 troops in Bulgaria, according to the daily's online edition (www.stripes.com).
Construction on the Romanian base is expected to be completed in the next two months, while the Bulgarian base is expected to open in 2011 or 2012.
The bases, funded by the U.S. but owned by the Romanian and Bulgarian governments, will be shared between U.S. and host-nation forces, Stars and Stripes quoted Gary Russ, commander of the largest U.S. military contingent operating in Eastern Europe, as saying.
Last month, the White House announced it no longer planned to base U.S. missiles and troops in Poland and the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 U.S. troops were taking part in exercises in nearby Romania and Bulgaria, the daily reported.
The exercises, which began in late June, will run until the end of October.
The U.S. efforts in Romania and Bulgaria are part of a global redeployment strategy started in the early years of the Bush administration to shift U.S. forces out of Germany and move them eastward, Stars and Stripes quoted James Robbins from the Washington-based think tank American Foreign Policy Council as saying.
“Placing troops in those countries would not only be cheaper, but it would move them closer to the volatile Middle East,” Robbins added.
Stars and Stripes is an editorially independent newspaper funded by the Pentagon, which provides news for the U.S. military.
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