The Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) is due to convene today to analyse the "risks and vulnerabilities" for the national security in the light of the United States requesting Romania to provide military support in the war against Iraq.
The Romanian Government had not made public the content of the document until yesterday, but had admitted to receiving it, though. Therefore it is yet uncertain whether the US requests concern only opening the air space and allowing use of infrastructure, or include an actual participation in the military or post-war operations. If considering the similar requests the United States of America has made to the nearby countries, the Parliaments of which have already endorsed them, one may suppose that the support Romania is asked to provide entails opening the air space, allowing access to the air and naval infrastructure and sending a few units to participate in the radioactive and chemical decontamination operations.
The Parliament in Sofia for instance decided to allow Bulgaria to open its air space, to make its military infrastructure available to the anti-Iraq coalition and to send an NCB (nuclear, chemical, biological) unit in the countries neighbouring Iraq. Slovakia and the Czech Republic will do the same, while Hungary will do even more, training Iraqi fighters opposing the regime in Baghdad.
Exactly how and with what will Romania support the anti-Iraqi coalition is a decision left to the CSAT. The Chief of General Staff Mihail Popescu has already announced the military is ready to participate in the war by sending chemical decontamination troops, as well as by dispatching an infantry battalion and a military police platoon.
During the previous Gulf War in 1991, Romania participated with an army hospital and the necessary staff, as well as with several military fire brigades to put out the fires at the oil drills in Kuwait, which had been bombed by Iraqi fighters.
PM Adrian Nastase at the end of last week announced the establishment of a think tank to monitor the latest developments in Iraq. This group, comprising Foreign, Interior and Defence Ministry, Romanian Intelligence Service and Foreign Intelligence Service representatives, has already convened to analyse the American request. A Government release shows the talks have covered the civil and military capacities, which Romania, in its position as a country invited to join the NATO, can commit to supporting the international counter-terrorism efforts. The recommendations of the group will be sent to the CSAT today.
The American troops will be allowed to transit Romania's air space and use its military bases without Parliament having to endorse this first, because such a decision has already been approved since 2001. This is what the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ghiorghi Prisacaru said. This decision was passed by Parliament on September 19, 2001, one week after the terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
Military experts say the most suitable facilities for the American and NATO planes currently at the bases in Italy and Germany will be, in case a war begins, the airports at Giarmata, Otopeni (the military wing), Fetesti and Mihail Kogalniceanu, as well as the Constanta Harbour.
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