The Ministry of Defense addressed Slovenian Television regarding the classification of certain infrastructure costs, noting that the NATO Secretariat did not include an estimated €360 million worth of transport infrastructure within the official defense expenditures. According to the Ministry, the Alliance’s assessment determined that several major development projects should not be counted as part of the core defense budget. Specifically, NATO rejected the proposal that constructing a railway station in Ljubljana, or increasing the operational capacity of the Port of Koper, should be counted toward defense spending.
Furthermore, the report indicates that discussions in Brussels did not agree to count the reconstruction and expansion of the Adriatic and Styria motorways as defense expenditures, despite these routes forming part of the designated NATO corridor or the broader European military mobility network. The scope of exclusion was detailed, noting that even significant rail upgrades, such as the construction of the second Koper-Divača railway line, and general enhancements to port facilities, were not factored into the defense spending calculations. The consistent message conveyed by the Ministry was that these civil infrastructure improvements are viewed separately from direct military defense spending.
Therefore, these substantial investments are not categorized within the established metrics used to count national defense outlays by the Alliance.
Topics: #not #defense #count
