Defense Minister Niko Peleshi reported on Monday in front of the parliamentary committee on security regarding the state of the fires in the country.
In a discussion over the recent fires that engulfed Sazan Island, Democrat MP Ferdinant Xhaferraj called on the minister to reveal the country’s capacities.
Minister Peleshi said Albania doesn’t have the capacity to buy special aircraft to put out the fires as not only they are costly, but also have high maintenance costs.
But the good news, according to the minister, Albania is closely cooperating with many countries in case of emergencies.
“We’re a small country. It’s not worth investing in an aircraft that costs €50 million”.
“If we do have that money, we’re not in a situation where we can spend €50 million and only use it for a month only, and then add also maintenance costs which are very high”.
“We maintain our air fleet through external contractors, costs are even higher than countries like Italy, as we have to transport the aircraft abroad when it needs to be fixed. Investing millions of euros for an air fleet is financially impossible”, said Peleshi.
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