Turkish Weekly:
The NATO missile shield, launched in 2005 and set to be fully operational by 2025, has been a source of dispute between Moscow and NATO. The Kremlin considers the system to be a threat to the continent’s strategic balance, however officials in Romania contest this belief, expressing that the NATO missile interceptors planned to be installed at a military base in the country are in no way a threat to Russia.
Recently, NATO-Russian relations were stirred after Russian Ambassador to Denmark – Mikhail Vanin, warned the Scandinavian country not to host aspects of the NATO missile defense system, as reported by Balkan Insight. “I do not think that the Danes fully understand the consequences of what happens if Denmark joins the US-led missile defense,” Vanin wrote for the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. He stated that the NATO country’s navy could be targeted by nuclear missiles if it joins the Western alliance’s anti-missile shield.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu backed Denmark on the issue, stating, “The anti-missile system is only for self-defense, as defined by the UN charter, and has nothing to do with Russia,” according to Balkan Insight.
Relations between Russia and Romania have been quite rocky recently as the latter has been among the strongest regional backers of the Western sanctions imposed against Russia in connection with the Crimea crisis and violence in eastern Ukraine. American General Philip Breedlove, commander of NATO forces in Europe, said Sunday that Russia exerted a high degree pressure on Romania and Poland for their involvement with the NATO missile defense system, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The base in Romania’s 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 investment in the base is estimated to be around $400 million, which, ironically, was originally built by the Soviet Union in 1952.
