 Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. James Mead, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense and Policy, will now address the questions. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, President Vasescu. Thank you, Minister Dusha, for hosting us today and for hosting this site. I also want to thank my good friend, NATO Deputy Secretary General Sandy Verspal for being here today. Thank you, President Vasescu and Minister Dusha, for hosting us today and for hosting this site. I also want to thank my good friend, Sandy Verspal, for being here today and for hosting this site. Today we are breaking ground both literally and metaphorically. The construction that this ceremony will kick off marks the beginning of a new stage in Romanian U.S. relations and for the NATO alliance. It took a lot of hard work to get to where we are today. So congratulations to all of you who have been involved in this very important endeavor. This event also represents a great accomplishment for Romania, one of which we should all be very proud. Since joining NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007, Romania has steadfastly pursued democratization, European and transatlantic integration and defense modernization. Romania's contribution to the European-phased adaptive approach is just one example of the many contributions Romania is making to European security and globally. For the United States, Romania has become one of our most reliable and steadfast partners. In addition to being a strong transatlantic partner to the United States, Romania is a dependable security contributor to NATO. Romania is a cornerstone partner in international missions, including ISAF in Afghanistan. And increasingly Romania is a country that can export security around the globe. Today's celebration is a reflection of the strong, enduring strategic partnership that Romania has with the United States. We see great potential in further building of this relationship. Today also marks a milestone in Romania's relationship with NATO and a critical point for the alliance itself. Since the end of the Cold War, the success of NATO has been symbolized by NATO's enlargement to include Romania and other new democracies of Central Europe. As the alliance has entered new times, it has also addressed new threats. One of these, of course, is the threat of ballistic missile attack. Four years ago, in September 2009, President Obama directed the Department of Defense to address the rapidly developing ballistic missile threats to our allies and to our deployed troops in Europe. Now, four years ago, in September 2009, President Obama ordered the Department of Defense to address the rapidly developing ballistic missile threats to our allies and to our deployed troops in Europe. The response I received was to address the European adaptive stage or EPA, which is the contribution of the United States to NATO's anti-racket mission. When phase two is completed here in the 2015 timeframe, Europe will be safer, US forces will be better protected, Romania will be safer and the NATO alliance will be stronger. In our efforts here in Romania serve as a precursor for phase three site in Poland. The United States commitment to EPA is ironclad and I look forward to seeing the completion of the system in the coming years. Let me conclude by thanking all those who contributed to make this day possible. The excellent defense relationship between the United States and Romania helped bring us to this important milestone. Secretary Hagel and all of us in the Department of Defense greatly appreciate the great work of the Romanian Ministry of National Defense. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Department of Defense, including the Missile Defense Agency and the European Command. And I'd like to recognize the efforts of the State Department, especially my good friend Frank Rose and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for setting the foundation block of this agreement in place. Finally the hard work of NATO itself has been important to the success of this effort. I thank Turkey and Spain in addition to Romanian Poland for hosting key elements of the NATO Missile Defense Program. What we are initiating here today is a powerful and tangible manifestation of our solemn commitment to mutual security in Europe. That commitment is a bedrock of the NATO Alliance and it is the basis of a strong and growing US-Romanian relationship. Thank you all for being here today for this important ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Trajan Basescu, the President of Romania will now address the audience. Mr. Dr. James Miller, dear Mr. Alexander Versbo, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to first thank you for the fact that the presence of the United States of America and of NATO at such a high level shows how important this event at the Vesello is for both the United States and NATO. For us the Romanians this moment has a deeper meaning because for us this moment means that Romania has become integrated into the systems and structures of NATO. Romania enters the NATO member states club which will ensure one of the most perfect solutions to protect European citizens and American citizens against the real threat that the ballistic missile attack represents. Because Romania is becoming now a member of the club of NATO member states that will provide the protection of European and American citizens against this real threat which is an attack with ballistic missiles. Moreover, this will also prove that the Allies have the capabilities and the capacity to protect their citizens against any kind of threat. Categorically, for a country such as Romania, the basis of development is security. Because only starting from security itself and going from security onward you can talk about having economic development and having citizens, your citizens that are protected. And with what concerns us from our point of view this today's event also has another significance and this is the trust of our Allies into Romania. For the time being the investment at the Vasello is a Romanian and United States investment. We hope that when this investment is completed and the system becomes operational the entire facility will be a part of the European security system. I will conclude by thanking first of all the authorities of the United States of America to Vice President Biden, to President Obama and also to thank that the United States of America to the Ministry of National Defense of Romania and last but not least to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania to the State Department and also to the local authorities at the Vasello which have made possible the investment that we start today. Thank you all and I would like to wish all of you to feel the same satisfaction that I feel today because the feeling that I'm having today is that of a job completely. J-A-C-K-S-C-O-R-B-Y. This is a great event today. This is very significant for the United States as well as our partnership with Romania. We certainly have a strong and durable relationship with our Romanian host that's founded upon our values and our initiatives. And this today's groundbreaking ceremony certainly is pivotal as we move forward with our ballistic missile defense capability and it's an honor to be here today and work with our Romanian host. Well it's very important as this begins our efforts toward a ballistic missile defense capability and over the coming months and year we'll be working very closely with our Romanian counterparts to ensure that we have the proper infrastructure, the resources, the security to make sure as we bring our ages to show our capability to bear that we're going to be on time and on schedule. We expect it to be operational in the 2015 timeframe. Well certainly because they're a great host as I said we share our values, we share our initiatives and also geographically speaking we did a Department of Defense review and this is a great location to defend against any threats that might be out there. Well essentially there'll be around 200 or so and it'll be a combination of military, of our civilian government employees as well as contractors and we'll use the existing facilities that are here obviously as we begin construction and we look forward to the opportunity to work closely with our Romanian partners in this endeavor and have no doubt that it will be a success. I just said it's an honor to be here today. We look forward with working with our Romanian partners and certainly this is the US contribution to our ballistic missile defense to our NATO forces in order to ensure a safe and secure and prosperous Europe. It's very important that we all work together and there's no doubt that we will between the Corps of Engineers, between our NAFAC partners, between our Romanian hosts. We will all work together toward that common ground of ensuring that we have a ballistic missile defense system on time and ready to defend Europe's interests. Thank you. Sure, Peter Helmlinger. P-E-T-E-R-H-E-L-M-L-I-N-G-E-R. I'm the commander of US Army Corps of Engineers Europe District based in Wiesbaden, Germany. The groundbreaking ceremonies traditionally commemorate the start of construction and they symbolize the partnership with the organizations that we're supporting. This is the Aegis Assure Missile Defense Complex. It is to provide ballistic missile defense for NATO and our allies in Europe. The US Army Corps of Engineers number one priority of the Chief of Engineers is to support COCOMs and warfighters. So we match our capabilities to meet the needs of the warfighter. This is a major project. It will take a concerted effort for the next two years to finish strong, partnering with both our host here in Romania, our prime contractor KBR, as well as our other partners including Naval Forces Europe and Missile Defense Agency. First, we need great people to accomplish the project and just the concerted teamwork of those members. Teamwork is absolutely essential to accomplish this mission. We accomplish our mission in the Corps of Engineers through project delivery teams, a matrix organization with a host of members that are in it. I'll have to work on the common objective of project delivery to deliver this project on time, on budget, transparently and safely, to ultimately deliver a quality project for our service members that will run this facility. Our role is critical along with our partners to ensure successful project delivery. I'd like to thank you for the time. The Corps of Engineers is committed to delivering state-of-the-art construction for our service members worldwide and especially here in Europe.