Kosovo to build ammunition factory, drone lab to support defence industry

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo plans to build its first state-owned ammunition factory and drone design lab, to prop up the country's defence industry, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Wednesday at a cabinet session.

Kurti revealed plans to form an inter-ministerial commission to oversee development of the facility and lab and emphasized the need for a self-sustaining defence industry to support a big ramp-up in weapons and arms for the military due to growing tensions with Serbia.

Kurti has repeatedly said his country should be ready to face any threat from neighbouring Serbia, which still considers Kosovo part of its territory.

A military "that has been armed so much in such a short time as ours needs to ensure and guarantee full operational capability and overall sustainability," Kurti said.

Ejup Maqedonci, the defence minister, said he would chair the commission and said they had received a feasibility report from state producers in Turkey and were finalizing the project.

He said that given the current security situation in Ukraine and Middle East, there was a global need to replenish ammunition and weapons stocks.

NATO still has a force of more than 4,000 peacekeepers mainly in the north part of Kosovo where in the past two years the country has seen its worst ethnic tensions since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Kosovo has a light armed force but since Kurti came to power in 2021, he has stepped up the defence budget and in July 2023, Kosovo bought a batch of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones.

Early this year, the U.S. State Department approved a sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Kosovo for an estimated $75 million.

Kosovo's defence policies are in line with NATO and it aims to join the alliance, four of whose members still do not recognize Kosovo as a state.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci and Antonis Pothitos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)