New defence system good for Romania

The US is considering installing a new defence system for medium-range missiles in Central and Eastern Europe. US Vice President Joe Biden announced yesterday in Bucharest that a follow-up system to the controversial missile defence shield would for the first time also provide security for Romania. The daily Adevărul welcomes the plans: "Has anyone recently had nightmares about Iranian missiles? Probably not. The missile defence shield conceived under the Bush administration was of interest to Central and Eastern Europe for an entirely different reason: Russia. The presence of US military was a guarantee not against [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, but against potential pressure from Moscow, which is much more active in the region. This was no doubt the line of thinking adopted by those 22 former political statesmen from Eastern Europe, … who called on [US] President [Barack] Obama not to sacrifice the region at the altar of relations with Russia. … The message of US Vice President Biden is not a powerful (missile) defence shield. But it will help."

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