And Romanian territory has served those purposes ever since.
In April of the following year, 2006, the US signed a comparable agreement with neighboring Bulgaria for the use of three of its major military bases - the Bezmer air base, the Novo Selo army training range and the Graf Ignatievo airfield.
Both pacts were signed for an initial ten year duration.
The US was allowed to station troops - estimates vary from 5,000-10,000 - on a rotating or permanent basis in both countries.
In the case of Bulgaria it will be the first time foreign troops have been stationed on its soil since Nazi Wehrmacht forces were driven out in 1944 and with Romania since Soviet troops withdrew in 1958.
The seven sites in both countries will be the first US military bases in former Warsaw Pact territory.
The Bezmer air base in Bulgaria is a major facility, similar in scope to Romania's Mihail Kogalniceanu, and its scale and purpose for current and futures campaigns in the east and south are indicated by this Bulgarian description:
"[T]he airbase...according to the US-Bulgarian agreement...will acquire the status of a strategic military facility in two years, like the Incirlik airbase in Turkey and Aviano in Italy."
(Standart News, June 10, 2007)
The same newspaper added that, "The Bezmer military airport near the town of Yambol (southeastern Bulgaria) will be transformed into one of the six new strategic airbases outside US borders."
(Standart News, June 6, 2007)
Britain's Jane's Defence Weekly in late 2006 informed its readers of the strategic sweep of the Pentagon's move into the Black Sea:
"[T]he new land, sea and airbases along the Black Sea will provide much improved contingency access for deployments into Central Asia, parts of the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
"Perhaps just as significantly, the new land, sea and airbases along the Black Sea will provide much improved contingency access for deployments into Central Asia, parts of the Middle East and Southwest Asia."
(Sofia Echo, November 17, 2006)
From the other end of the planet Lin Zhiyuan, deputy office director of the World Military Affairs Research Department of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, saw the developments through the same lens but with trepidation:
"[N]ew military bases, airports and training bases will be built in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and other nations to ensure 'gangways' to some areas in the Middle East, African and Asia in possible military actions in the years ahead."
(People's Daily, December 5, 2006)
Both preceding analyses were confirmed by the US military itself the following year when Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the U.S. Army Europe operations chief and deputy chief of staff, spoke of Romania to an armed forces publication:
"It's in a critical location with emerging partners, at a location which is really a place that has been a historical transit route for bad guys."
The interview added "The bases would house rotating U.S. troops that would train under the command of Joint Task Force East, headquartered at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base. "The U.S. signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Romania in December 2005 to allow U.S. forces to use the former communist nation for training, pre-positioning of equipment and, if necessary, staging and deploying troops into war zones."
(Stars and Stripes, May 4, 2007)
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