Romania and United States signed draft agreement on missile defense system

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.