#NATO Deputy Secretary General to visit Romania

Inaugural event at Deveselu airbase, Romania

NATO has just announced that Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow will visit Romania on Monday 29 August 2016. There has been growing speculation that NATO will move its nuclear presence from the İncirlik air base in Turkey to its base in Romania; as yet, no such rumours been confirmed.

It is no secret that relations between Turkey and NATO allies, particularly the US, have been strained since the failed coup in July. Turkey’s President Erdogan has made a formal application for the extradition of Fetullah Gülen from America, believing that Gülen supporters were behind the coup attempt.

Given the increasingly oppressive measures being taken in Turkey, both before and following July’s events and the instability in the wider region, concerns have been voiced about the presence of nuclear arms in Turkey.

Following the coup, the air base experienced a power cut. Turkey prevented flights from landing and taking-off for a period after the coup with concerns that plotters could be based there. There has also been more recent speculation that Germany will withdraw its planes deployed at the base.

Romania

On 12 May, the new Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defence system at Romania’s Deveselu airbase became fully operational. NATO has been at pains to emphasize that the base is purely defensive and not directed against Russia.

At the inaugural event, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, speaking alongside Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and US Deputy Secretary of Defence Robert Work, that the activation of the site “represents a significant increase in the capability to defend European Allies against the proliferation of ballistic missiles from outside the Euro-Atlantic area”.

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