Worried Romania Urges NATO to Look East

“Romania is extremely concerned over developments in neighboring Ukraine, which have a serious impact on international security. In such a context, we have concrete expectations of a redeployment and an eastward repositioning of NATO's naval, air and ground forces," Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean, said on Thursday.

In an interview for AFP news agency, Corlatean stressed that "the Black Sea region must be a top priority for NATO and the EU".

The military alliance is not ruling out troop deployments to Eastern Europe, according to media reports. US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO military commander in Europe, on Thursday said that he will present a package of measures next week laying out how the alliance will respond to the Russian buildup along Ukraine's borders.

NATO has already intensified its presence in member-states near the border with Ukraine. It has reinforced its Baltic air patrols and is performing daily AWACs surveillance flights over Poland and Romania.

In a related development, some 450 US and Romanian troops and technical staff on Thursday took part in joint military exercise in northwestern Romania flying US F-16 fighter jets alongside Romanian Mig-21 Lancer’s.

The United States is also to deploy 600 more marines in southeastern Romania, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport Administrative Center, Romanian president Traian Basescu announced early this month.

Following the new deployment, the total size of the US military in Romania will reach a maximum of 1,600 troops. Mihail Kogalniceanu airport became a major US military base in 2007.

Romania, which has a 694km-long border with Ukraine, has been among the strongest regional backers of Western sanctions against Russia...