Podžić-Scanlan: Increase the military budget

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Minister of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sifet Podžić received the First Deputy High Representative and Brčko Supervisor, Ambassador Michael Scanlan, and his associates on a visit.

In a conversation attended by the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of BiH, Muhamed Smajić, Minister Podžić spoke about his priorities in the further work of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of BiH, particularly focusing on the need to increase the military budget of BiH, as well as the rationalization of costs of the MoD and AF BiH.

Ambassador Scanlan emphasized the importance of the affordability of an effective defence system of BiH and offered the support of the Office of the High Representative in this direction.

"By submitting the Reform Program document to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the path is opened for the implementation of the Defence Review, which provides guidelines on what the Armed Forces of BiH should look like in the next ten years. This also implies the need to increase the military budget in order to implement the accompanying modernization Plan of the AF BiH," emphasized Minister Podžić.