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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
"We are looking for small bases which should be flexible," US navy commander Chris McDonald told AFP.
"If air and land forces come here, they would wish to be near an airport and runway so that they can move off to where they need to go," he said.
A training area for land troops with a rail network and an airbase nearby would also be preferrable, he said speaking on the sidelines of a conference on the possibilities in Bulgaria for US bases.
A Bulgarian defence ministry official, Nikola Yankov, told the conference that bases in eastern Europe would not be on the same scale as those currently used in western Europe.
The camps in the east would be more for training purposes and short-term exercises, he said. "It will not be a question of bases on the same scale as those currently in Germany."
McDonald also said the White House would soon be sending delegations not only to Bulgaria and Romania but throughout the world to discuss strategy.
US President George W. Bush said this week that he would send delegations to new allies in Europe and Asia after the next NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels to lay the ground for the redeployment of US forces in the world.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi told AFP Thursday that a high-level expert team led by the State Department would come to Bulgaria in the first half of December to explore the possibility for setting up bases in Bulgaria.
McDonald said US experts had already visited several sites, at Koren in the south-east, Novo Selo in the east, Graf Ignatievo near Plovdiv in the south and the northeastern air base at Bezmer.