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Gen. Breedlove:Romania already has solid ground, sea and air security package
Romania already has a solid package of measures for the consolidation of its ground, sea and air security; further measures will be considered, General Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) said on Wednesday in Brussels.
A significant Marine force is already present at the Mihail Kogalniceanu [southeastern Romania] air base, which recently got 175 more soldiers. The United States sent the USS Cook to the Black Sea; it is currently performing exercises off the Romanian Black Sea coast. Also, as you know, AWACS flights are already under way. So Romania already has a solid package of ground, sea and air measures; further measures will be analysed in this package, Gen. Breedlove said at a press briefing following NATO\\\\\\\'s decision on Wednesday to reinforce the collective defence in southeastern Europe.
As regards the flights of AWACS aircraft over Romania and Poland, the SACEUR said that they are extremely useful for understanding what happens in NATO\\\\\\\'s airspace, above NATO allies, in order to defend them properly.
Gen. Breedlove mentioned that tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest he will inform NATO\\\\\\\'s political leadership on the specific movements to be carried out and on the details of the units, locations and exercises. Subsequently, the concrete decisions will be taken on the deployment of the defence means. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had stated earlier in a press conference that the new deployments of allied ships, aircraft and troops will occur within days.
The measures taken today are of defensive nature, intended to assure our Eastern allies of our unbreakable commitment for our defence responsibilities, the SACEUR added, underlining that the only way to settle the crisis in Ukraine is political.