European edition, Saturday, January 15, 2005
From Stripes and wire reports

Marine general says base agreements with Romania, Bulgaria nearly complete

The U.S. military is about to secure agreements with Bulgaria and Romania that would enable troops to train at sprawling bases there — perhaps by the end of the year, the top U.S. commander in Europe said Friday.

The United States was looking at up to five facilities in each country for use by Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine units, according to Marine Gen. James L. Jones, commander of both the U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

Jones made the comments Friday during a breakfast meeting with reporters in Casteau , Belgium . Earlier this week, he toured bases in Bulgaria while also making stops in Romania and Lithuania .

“This is part and parcel of the transformation of our footprint in Europe , which has been in need of surgery for some time,” he said.

Plans for the bases could be drawn up soon, and if approved by the U.S. Congress and governments in both countries, Jones said, training deployments could start quickly.

“There's no reason why we could not start with deployment this year,” he said.

Jones' special assistant, Army Col. Catherine Abbott, said U.S. troops would be tenants at the bases and would not own them.

“We will just use them, and when the need arises all the agreements will be in place,” she said.

President Bush announced last year that he intended to move some troops from bases in Europe and South Korea to bases in the United States . Bush also said that new, smaller bases would be established in Eastern Europe and Africa .

Abbott said that the establishment of bases in Bulgaria and Romania did not mean that bases in Germany would be closing this year.

Under Bush's plan, the United States would move away from many of its big, permanent bases where troops are stationed long- term with families and large back-up infrastructures. Instead, it would use smaller, more austere facilities where troops would rotate in for shorter deployments.

The Bulgarian and Romanian sites “are purely military sites without family, without infrastructure changes,” Jones said.

The two countries are also thought to be not as restrictive as Germany , for example, on the types of training that could take place there.

Over the past two years, U.S. military planners have said that a network of smaller bases spread around the world will provide more flexibility in dealing with terrorism, regional crises and other emerging threats.

Romania and Bulgaria , which joined NATO in April, are considered particularly suited to new U.S. bases because of their proximity to volatile regions in the Balkans, Caucases and Middle East .

They also have Soviet-era facilities that could be adapted for American use, and both countries are keen to host U.S. troops.

Jones said the United States has sought to calm Russian concerns about any eastern movement of U.S. forces.

“We've kept our Russian friends fully apprised of our intentions,” he said. “That has had a reassuring effect.”

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