U.S to extend troop deployment to Romania

The U.S will keep 4,000 American troops in southeast Romania for at least nine months, the New York Times reported citing officials.

The Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on the Black Sea is  a seven-minute rocket flight across the Black Sea from where Russian forces have settled in Crimea.

It has become a training hub for NATO forces in southeast Europe.

There are around 4,000 U.S. soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division who have been stationed at the air base since last summer, including small groups of troops that frequently train right on Romania’s border with Ukraine.

The 101st Airborne Division troops will leave in the next two months, and officials said they would be replaced by a different brigade from the 101st Division, which is based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Prior to Saturday, it had not been clear whether the Pentagon would keep the senior-level unit at the air base on Romania or move its forces elsewhere, the Times reported.

Sending a two-star general that close to the combat zone, military analysts have said, would allow for quick decisions about where to position troops and weapons should Russia push the war into NATO territory.

The move “would ensure the United States continues to be well positioned to provide a robust deterrent and defensive posture alongside our allies across the European continent,” the Army said in a statement on Saturday.

“The United States will continue to adjust its posture as needed in response to the dynamic security environment.”

The buildup was part of President Joe Biden’s commitment in June to increase American forces in Europe in response to Russia’s invasion.

There are currently about 12,000 American troops, currently based in western Poland, to work with NATO forces in Poland and the Baltics.

The American forces in Romania are training soldiers from NATO allies in Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. Though they are among the closest units to the combat, they are not training Ukrainian forces on advanced weapons systems that are being shipped to the Ukrainians.

Romanian military officials have welcomed the American troops as a force large enough to ensure what Lt. Gen. Iulian Berdila, chief of the country’s land forces, described last month as “predictable deterrence and defense together.”

 

NATO chief warns about ‘armed conflict in Europe’ as U.S. troops arrive at Romanian airbase

 

LĂSAȚI UN MESAJ

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here