– US to boost troops at Romania airbase increasing NATO’s military presence in Eastern Europe (Voice of Russia, April 1, 2014):
US has asked to boost the number of troops and aircraft stationed at an airbase in NATO ally, Romania, President Traian Basescu said. The request would add up to 600 US troops to the roughly 1,000 currently stationed in Romania, and would increase the number of military aircraft there, Reuters reports.
Washington has used the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea in eastern Romania, not far from the Crimea peninsula, since 1999.
According to the source, this move is part of NATO’s efforts to increase its military presence in Eastern Europe.
“The US embassy in Bucharest has asked for support from Romanian authorities to expand current operations at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base,” Basescu said in a letter to the speaker of Romania’s lower house of parliament.
“Mihail Kogalniceanu” base was used, in particular, as a staging post for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Oh no. It will be interesting to see if they capitulate here and how much power US still has.
I wonder what the developments are in Cuba (with Russia) and Venezuela (with China)?