Bogdan Aurescu: The treaty does not contain secret annexes. The cost of an interceptor is 10 million dollars and will be incurred by Americans

The treaty on the anti ballistic missile interceptors that Romania will sign with the USA will not contain secret annexes, Foreign Affairs State Secretary Bogdan Aurescu declared in an interview for Hotnews.ro. He said that in Romania there will be at least 24 interceptors of missiles and three launching mechanisms plus a number of back up interceptors.

Aurescu said that Russia was informed by the Romanian party and by the NATO Council of the evolutions related to the project and considered the recent Russian rhetoric after the announcement of the Romanian party to place the anti ballistic missile shield at Deveselu, South Romania, as an opportunity to reinforce its opposition to the project.

The State Secretary reminded that the Russian Foreign Affairs minister Serghey Lavrov said recently that Moscow does not have a problem with the first and second stages of the project but is more concerned with the last two stages that will be implemented in 2018 and 2020. Romania is part of the second stage.

Here are his most important statements

Negotiating and signing the deal with the US

Talks will continue to negotiations on the implementation arrangements. There is a set of technical documents that ensure the implementation of the project.
This project has every perspective to become a NATO project, following the decisions taken at the Lisbon summit last year when it was decided to create a NATO anti ballistic missile shield and for which the US project will be the focal point
Therefore, the Romanian military base at Deveselu will become in time a NATO base
All Parliamentary political parties endorsed this project which they considered important for Romania’s security and strategic interests. It is a national consensus and there will no problems to ratify it in the Parliament
The infrastructure development at Deveselu will be presented shortly. The site will become operational around 2015 and by then everything else will be finished
The American party will pay for everything related to the improvement of the facilities installed at the military base, everything related to system controls, radars, placement costs and annual maintenance
The costs would amount to about 400 million dollars with 20 million dollars annual maintenance costs plus the costs of missiles
An anti ballistic missile interceptor costs around 10 million dollars and there will be at least 24 of them plus a number of back up ones
There will be a series of accommodation places for about 150 to 200 military and civilian Americans that will work there and will be able to increase to 500 if necessary. The military base will be under Romanian command and depending on the needs the number of military will be decided when the base will be close to ready.

Strategic benefits for Romania

This project increases the substance of the Romanian – American partnership on this military – political area of cooperation, increases Romania’s national security and improves the strategic role of the country in the region
This site in Romania, in the future part of NATO has the aim to cover a consistent part of Central and South East Europe
Everybody can rest assured that all aspects related to security and intelligence are considered top priorities
There are no secret annexes to the contracts Romania will sign