Romania Defends NATO Missile Defence Plans

"The anti-missile system is only for self-defence, as defined by the UN charter, and has nothing to do with Russia," Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Saturday.

Aurescu was commenting after Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Mikhail Vanin, warned the Scandinavian country not to join the NATO missile defence system.

Vanin said Danish warships could become targets for Russian nuclear missiles if it joins the system.

In August last year, Denmark agreed to contribute to NATO's shield with at least one frigate with advanced radar capacity.

Aurescu said that "the threat to use force against a NATO state is inadmissible, so we are fully supporting Denmark, as a NATO ally of Romania".

His statement was echoed by Defence Minister Mirce Dusa, who on Sunday said Romania doesn't agree with Russia's view, "as the anti-missile system is a defence system".

Russia strongly opposes the missile defence system, which involves planned bases in the southern Romanian village of Deveselu and Poland.

The base in Deveselu will be the first to feature the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile system, a land-based version of the radar tracking system installed on US warships since 2004.

Scheduled to become operational by the end of 2015, the base will be staffed by 200 to 500 US military, civilian and contract employees. The work at Deveselu involves an estimated investment of $400 million in the base, which ironically was originally built by the Soviet Union in 1952.

Relations between Romania and Russia are already rocky. NATO member Romania has been among the strongest regional backers of the package of Western sanctions imposed on Russia in connection to the crisis in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

In recent months, Bucharest officials...