Romania’s Supreme Defence Council on Wednesday decided to allow the presence of NATO member states’combat aircrafts on Romanian territory, as well as 200 troops and maintenance personnel.

The second decision is connected to Romania’s possible participation as a coordinator state in NATO’s Ukraine support fund project, in the area of cybernetic defence, according to president Traian Basescu.

The decisions are to be presented at the NATO summit which opened in Wales on Thursday, at which plans for a rapid response force to protect Eastern European members against possible Russian aggression are on the agenda.

The Supreme Defence Council also supported a bigger NATO presence in Romania and the region.

Experts said it was important for Romania to be reassured that the alliance was making efforts towards ensuring security in the region.

“Romania is interested in consolidating security to the eastern border of NATO, given the increasing security risks in the region. Security also needs to increase in the Black Sea region,” said political analyst Anne-Marie Blajan.

In recent months, Bucharest officials have urged the US and NATO to boost their military presence in Romania to ensure stability.

In August, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that “NATO efforts have to be clearly channelled towards ensuring security in this region and towards clear support for new EU accession countries – for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, and for commitments related to their security”.

Media reports have included Romania among the East European countries in which NATO intends to deploy more military bases.

Last month, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO would attempt to agree on “a more visible presence in the East”.

“Our eastern allies will be satisfied when they see what is actually in the readiness action plan,” Rasmussen said on August 27.

The readiness action plan will enable NATO “to be able to act swiftly in this completely new security environment in Europe”, he said.

“We have something already called the NATO response force, whose purpose is to be able to be deployed rapidly if needed. Now it’s our intention to develop what I would call a spearhead within that response force at very, very high readiness,” he explained.

The military bloc is now working to create a force of 10,000 troops from seven different member states “for rapid deployment and frequent exercises”, he added

NATO member Romania is one of the Alliance’s strongest supporters among the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Last October, the installation of US missile interceptors began at the Deveselu military base in southern Romania.

The interceptors are to be installed at Deveselu by 2015 as part of the second phase of the US-led project to build a missile shield in Europe.

The scheme viewed with deep suspicion by Russia. The work at Deveselu has involved an estimated investment of $400 million.

Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu airport, near the Black Sea shore, became a major US military base in 2007, and around 1,600 troops are currently deployed there.