The President of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Stevo Pendarovski, was briefed on the combat readiness and the realization of the plans and tasks of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia during 2023, at the Army House in Skopje today.
During the briefing on Army combat readiness, the Army current condition according to the functional areas that influence the combat readiness were presented to the President Stevo Pendarovski, the Minister of Defense Slavjanka Petrovska, the Deputy Minister of Defense, the Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Azim Nuredini,the State Secretary Vladimir Anchev, Army generals and representatives of the President’s Cabinet and heads of departments in the Ministry of Defense by the Chief of General Staff General Gjurchinovski and the Director of the General Staff, Brigadier General Simeon Trajkovski.
The completed tasks and achievements of the Army in 2023 were presented to the military superiors, as well as the state and level of realization in the field of personnel management, training and exercises, operations in the country and abroad, equipment and infrastructure, military planning and structure of forces, modernization, budget and financing and key tasks for 2024.
In the General Gjurchinovski’s conclusion, it was stated that the combat readiness of the Army is at the necessary level that enables the successful execution of the tasks and that in the current year all the planned tasks have been successfully implemented. In doing so, it is emphasized that the commands and units of the Army realized all the planned activities in carrying out the training according to NATO standards promptly and professionally, and that the process of transformation and modernization and participation in operations abroad are carried out with the planned dynamics.
The President and the Commander-in-Chief Stevo Pendarovski emphasized that in 2023 the members of the Army proved their professionalism, dedication and readiness. He stressed that the Army responsibly fulfills the obligations arising from NATO membership, cooperation with the bodies and committees within NATO and other armies and pointed out his expectation that the equipping and modernization of the Army will continue in the following years.
President Pendarovski reaffirmed his commitment to further raising and maintaining quality standards and conditions for work and service of all members of the Army and to achieve the set goal – to allocate two percent of GDP for defense.
At the annual regular briefing on the combat readiness of the Army, Minister Petrovska said that in 2024, the stable investment in defense and the Army will continue. Next year, Petrovska said, North Macedonia will meet the two criteria that were jointly adopted at the NATO Summit in Vilnius with 2% of GDP set aside for defense and a third of these funds for modernization.
“We received extremely positive evaluations for our participation in Peace Support Operations and in multinational NATO forces in Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, which is a confirmation of our contribution to regional and collective security,” said the minister.
Petrovska also referred to the continuous advancement of the status of the Army members and defense employees. “The new Law on Defense Employees is in parliamentary procedure, and the new Collective Agreement will be adopted as soon as possible,” Minister Petrovska informed.
During 2023, the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia participated in several international exercises in the country and abroad with about 700 of its members, we hosted the “Quick Response 23” exercise, which was performed at TA “Krivolak” and about 1850 members of the armies of four NATO countries participated in it.
In international operations, this year the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia participated in the NATO operations “KFOR” in Kosovo and “NMI” in Iraq, “enhanced Forward Presence” in Latvia, etc. “enhanced Vigilance Activities” in Bulgaria and Romania, the EU mission “ALTEA” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UN mission – “UNIFIL” in Lebanon with the participation of staff officers, where we increased the participation to two infantry platoons and staff elders. Our staff participation during the year hovered around 170 of our members who rotated every six months.
During the year, the army also showed its solidarity with NATO allies by engaging its members in dealing with the consequences of natural disasters. In addition to the participation of 60 of our members in the field search activities, finding and extracting the possible survivors of the catastrophic earthquake in the Republic of Turkey, 100 members of the Army participated in dealing with the consequences of the floods in Slovenia.
According to the modernization and equipping plan of the Army, during the month of June, another 32 JLTV light armored vehicles entered the Army, and the procurement of all funds and other equipment is taking place according to the planned dynamics.
The combat readiness briefing is a regular annual obligation of the Chief of the General Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, with the aim of presenting the state of the Army’s combat readiness and the planned activities for the next year.
