The agreement was initialed by Romanian Foreign Ministry state secretary Bogdan Averescu and Ellen Tauscher, U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, said the press release.
According to the ministry, Aurescu met in Washington with Tauscher and Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary for defense policy and verification operations. Discussions between the three officials focused on the steps to be taken before the agreement is signed and ratified.
They also compared the Romanian and English versions of the document to make sure no errors slipped in, said the ministry.
According to the source, the initialing procedure (signing a document with initials) marks the end of negotiations and is aimed to validate the document before it is signed.
Early May, Romania’s highest defense body (CSAT) approved the setting up of U.S. antimissile shield elements at a former airbase at Deveselu, in the southern Romanian Olt county, after the seventh round of negotiations on the antimissile shield project.