Ramadani: Kosovo in the initial phase of strengthening its army

Kosovo is in the early stage of developing its army and is going through a period of transition, security expert Burim Ramadani told Kosovo Online, noting that the ten-year plan for strengthening the army has not yet been completed, which further complicates the assessment of its real capabilities.

The portal “Global Firepower” published its latest ranking list, which deals with a comparative analysis of the military power of all countries in the world. According to it, Kosovo is ranked last in the region and is in 139th place out of 145 military forces.

“Kosovo is at the very beginning of strengthening its army, it is very young and still in a period of transition, so the ten-year transition plan has not yet been completed,” Ramadani said, emphasizing that international rankings often provide an incomplete picture of a military’s actual strength.

“Rankings from various organizations, such as ‘Global Firepower’ and others, mostly focus on statistics about soldiers, armored vehicles, tanks, and other material assets, but they do not take into account training, methodology, intelligence capabilities, and other important aspects of the military. As in many cases, this ranking did not accurately reflect the real situation and is still not fully adequate,” Ramadani said.

He adds that an army is not just the number of soldiers and tanks, but also cyber aspects, cyber capabilities, defensive capabilities, intelligence work, training, methodology, and other factors.

“I think Kosovo is at the beginning of this process, while other countries in the region have different models, because some are still not NATO members and therefore are not fully compatible with NATO standards and procedures,” Ramadani emphasized.

He also notes that the pace of army development in Kosovo has been slowed by financial constraints.

“So that is the difference, and I think Kosovo will progress slowly, also because of the budget crisis,” Ramadani concluded.