Romanian and U.S. delegations Wednesday finalized the text of the agreement on the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in Romania, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said.
The result created the conditions for the agreement to be initialed and signed, the ministry said in a statement, adding that negotiations will continue for both sides to agree on all the instruments of implementation of the agreement.
Bucharest hosted Wednesday the seventh round of negotiations on Romania's participation in the missile defense system the United States intends to deploy in Europe.
The Romanian inter-institutional delegation was headed by State Secretary of Foreign Ministry Bogdan Aurescu, while the U.S.
delegation was led by Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who is in charge of arms control and international security affairs.
Based on the progress made during the previous rounds, the two sides have approached those still pending technical and legal aspects, and finally reached agreement on the draft agreement, as well as the instruments for implementing it.
According to the statement, the decisive progress was possible in the current round due to high political will of the parties and the professionalism and constructive approach that characterized the work of the negotiating teams of the two countries, motivated by awareness of the importance of this strategic project for Romania, U.S. and NATO.
On Feb. 4, 2010, Romania's Supreme Council for National Defense accepted U.S. President Barack Obama's invitation to participate in the adaptive development of the European anti-missile defense system.
The new shield is to provide full coverage of Romania's territory against short- and medium-range missile threats.