March 29, 2005

Surprise visit
Basescu went to Iraq and Afghanistan

Romanian president Traian Basescu visited the Romanian soldiers in Iraq on Sunday. Yesterday he also visited the Romanian soldiers in Afghanistan. The Romanian president was accompanied by General Eugen Badalan, state councilor Constantin Degeratu and Sergiu Medar, chief of the military Information department. The visit had not been announced out of security reasons.

After landing in Tallil airport, the Romanian delegation went to Ad Diwanyah to meet with Romanian soldiers in the Central Southern Multinational Division led by Poland. Basescu stated Romania had no policy to cut on military troops and it would stay within the type of missions it had participated in that far, that is missions of reconstruction and stabilization in Iraq.

Rador quotes Basescu stating to the public radio post: "We visited our troops in the two localities. I can tell you one thing: it is to the honor of a country to have such soldiers! I would add one more important thing: what Romanian soldiers do on Iraq they don't do for themselves or for the Romanian army. What Romanian soldiers do in Iraq they do it for 22 millions of Romanians. In our foreign affairs policy we use as way to solve priority problems of Romania's the fact that Romanian soldiers are doing their duty in Iraq." (Anca HRIBAN)