Defence Minister Olta Xhaçka interviewed by Klan Television

Published: Saturday, 13 January 2018 16:56

Defence Minister Olta Xhaçka interviewed by Klan Television. The interview’s major focus was on her challenges as Defence Minister and her family. During the time of interview, she also paid visits at some AAF units.

Full interview below:

Olta Xhaçka: This is a ceremony that takes place twice a day. The flag is raised in the morning and it is lowered at the sunset. This time I participated in the ceremony, this way you could also be part of the Flag Raising Ceremony!”

The first thing she learned from the moment Prime Minister Rama entrusted her the head of one of the most important Ministries of the country, was: “I learned in these four months to love this job. I appreciate to the fullest the profession of the military personnel. It’s a hard and honoured profession that oblige all of us to do more for them!”

The challenge for the Defence Minister is to line up Albanian Armed Forces next to its counterparts Allies part of NATO.

“The modernization of Albanian Armed Forces includes modernization of equipment and armament. There is a signatory plan with our Allies, including the Americans to increasing the Defence Budget till 2% of the GDP until 2024."

“The management of human resources is what I consider a personal challenge. There are working parties which work is to inspect the educational system of training and promotion of the military personnel in career and ranking. This working parties will make the process of ranking transparent and will revise the legislation aiming to bring it to higher standards!"

The reason that a part of the interview was made inside the Museum of the Armed Forces was:

“Soon enough we will make it possible that everyone can come and visit this Museum, which accommodates 105 years of history of the Armed Forces. It will be part of Tirana touristic guide”.

The Defence Minister chose the lowering of the flag at sunset coinciding with the end of the training of Commandos in Zall – Herr to give a message:

“Today we have removed once and for all the armament that dated long back, in the age of Cold War. There is a moral obligation to treat military personnel better, and a special thank you goes to them for the extraordinary job they do, full of challenges and restrictions!"