At a joint meeting attended by the Chief of the Army General Staff, General Sashko Lafchiski, and Deputy Minister of Defence Elfet Ismaili, the Minister said that the jointly reached decision in NATO to allocate 2 percent of GDP for the defence has been respected, and the provision to allocate 20 percent of the defence budget for modernization has been exceeded.
“The defence budget for 2025 amounts to 329 million euros, of which over 32%, or over 106 million euros, are intended for the modernization and equipping of the Army. Compared to 2024, this is 18 million euros more for this purpose”, said Misajlovski.
The Minister also informed about all the projects for the modernization of the Army, indicating that the procurement of the JLTV armoured vehicles should be completed next year, while at the same time the Stryker armoured vehicles should arrive in the Army. In 2025, the Boran artillery systems, the Mistral air defence systems and other related equipment will also arrive.
Regarding the human capital, the minister pointed out that by the end of 2024, 99 percent of all claims in accordance with the Collective Agreement, the Law on the Defence Employees and the Law on Service in the Army have been paid and that all obligations to the employees will continue to be respected next year.
Minister Misajlovski thanked the media representatives for their interest and constructiveness and said that the Ministry remains fully open to cooperation.
