Nevertheless, he said Slovenia would do everything it can to meet the goals set to it by the alliance.
With its current defence budget at 1.16% of GDP, Slovenia takes 18th place among NATO members, while only the US, the UK and Greece already meet the organisation's goal of at least 2% of GDP being spent on defence.
Jakič stressed that along with the defence budget an important issue was cooperation in missions, where Slovenia meets all its obligations.
Commenting on Slovenia's low spending for defence investments - only 2.2% of the defence budget, while NATO standards envisage at least 20% -, Jakič said the issue would be solved like everywhere else, by increasing the budget alongside the economic recovery.
According to the minister, reforms in Slovenia are aimed at balancing out the budget in 2017, while a surplus trend could be reached in 2020.
Asked whether Slovenia was reengaging old former Yugoslav tanks to meet one of its NATO goals of completing a motorised battalion, he noted that the tanks were only meant for training purposes and not as a substitute for the downscaled purchase of 8x8 armoured personnel carriers from Finnish contractor Patria to only 30 vehicles.
Moreover, if court trials finding corruption in the procedure are upheld, the whole purchase may become void and Slovenia would need to go through a new purchase procedure.
Three squads are to be formed with the old tanks, two training in Slovenia and one being sent to Germany, where it is to be marketed for training of other armies.
Jakič also said that the allies were urged at the ministerial to increase cyber defence capabilities.
Slovenia is one of four NATO members that have not yet taken appropriate measures for cyber defence and the minister promised he would do everything to have a body tasked with coordination of cyber defence in Slovenia.
He said the issue would be a major topic in the future and that he had a feeling the world would focus on this kind of defence, as he could hardly imagine traditional conflicts and confrontations in the future.
Source: SloveniaTimes
