Open arms for the U.S. military.

last updated 8 January 2015

Romania

Serban Orescu

Let other countries complain about the U.S. military, said Serban Orescu in Bucharest’s Ziua. Romania is “categorically pleased” about the recently inked agreement giving the U.S. access to several Romanian military bases on the Black Sea. For us, it’s almost a dream come true. “Two generations of Romanians were unwillingly subjected to Soviet domination and the communist yoke, and they yearned for the Americans” to rescue them. Even now that the Soviet Union is gone—largely thanks to U.S. determination—Russia is still a threat. It continues to keep troops on the soil of our neighbor, Moldova, despite pledging to withdraw them back in 1993. And it has been steadily sucking the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus back into its orbit, through a network of military agreements. As the countries just east of our borders, across the Black Sea, become more authoritarian, Romania is becoming “strategically important as an outpost of Western democracy.” A firm alliance between Bucharest and Washington is vital “for all of us.”