In the Army Hall in Skopje, a briefing was held today on the combat readiness of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia in 2012, which was attended by: the President of the Republic of Macedonia and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, Defence Minister, Fatmir Besimi, Chief of General Staff of the Army, Major General Goranco Koteski, commanders of subordinate commands and units, key personnel from the Ministry of Defense and heads of organizational units of the ARM.

The President of the Republic of Macedonia and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was informed by the Chief of the Army General Staff about the implementation of the plans and tasks in 2012, according to the Army functional areas related to: personal management, force protection operations, trainings and exercises, logistics, relations and communications and budgeting. Based on the comprehensive annual analysis of the Army General Staff, it was concluded that the Army, in the past year have successfully carried out its mission and tasks, and, despite objective difficulties and limitations, the combat readiness was at the necessary level. On this occasion, the Chief of General Staff, in particular, pointed out the successful execution of the key tasks and projects of the Army that marked the past year, such as: celebration of the 20th jubilee of ARM, new combat uniform, successful execution of international missions outside the Republic of Macedonia, assistance provided to institutions in time of natural disasters and rescue missions, adoption of a number of rules and regulations governing the life and work in the Army and the execution of regular tasks.

Main challenges, but also measures, which will contribute in 2013 to the further enhancement of combat readiness and morale of the Army are: proposal and adoption of the plan for modernization of the Army by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, sale of the unusable and old equipment of the ARM, allocation of funds in the budget of the MoD from the sale of property owned by the MoD, implementation of the project “ARM my Home”, recruiting staff from the professional Army Reserve staff, better functioning and coordination of the key sectors of the MoD with appropriate sections in the Army GS and further enhancement of the level of preparedness of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia.