Minister of Defense (North Macedonia)

Minister of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia is a post (minister) to lead the Ministry of Defense of North Macedonia. Currently, the post is held by Slavjanka Petrovska, since 2022. She succeeded Radmila Šekerinska who held the office from 2017 to 2022.

Minister of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia
Incumbent Slavjanka Petrovska since 17 January 2022
Ministry of Defense of North Macedonia
Member of	The Government
Reports to	Prime Minister of North Macedonia
Formation	20 March 1991
First holder	Risto Damjanovski

History

The first Macedonian defense minister was Trajan Gocevski, who was in office in 1992. Vlado Popovski and Vlado Buchkovski were re-elected for the post that means they have served for two mandates each. The minister for the shortest amount of time was the first one, Trajan Gocevski, while for the longest period was Vlado Popovski.

A list of all Ministers of Defense of North Macedonia follows:

No.	Portrait	Minister (Birth–Death)	Term of office			Political Party
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Risto Damjanovski (born 1937)	20 March 1991	10 January 1992	296 days	Independent
2		Trajan Gocevski (born 1950)	10 January 1992	4 September 1992	238 days	SDSM
3		Vlado Popovski (born 1941)	4 September 1992	21 December 1994	2 years, 108 days	SDSM
4		Blagoja Handzhiski (born 1948)	21 December 1994	29 May 1997	2 years, 159 days	SDSM
5		Lazar Kitanovski (1948–2011)	29 May 1997	1 December 1998	1 year, 186 days	SDSM
6		Nikola Kljusev (1927–2008)	1 December 1998	28 July 2000	1 year, 240 days	VMRO-DPMNE
7		Ljuben Paunovski (born 1958)	28 July 2000	13 May 2001	289 days	VMRO-DPMNE
8		Vlado Bučkovski (born 1962)	13 May 2001	26 November 2001	197 days	SDSM
(3)		Vlado Popovski (born 1941)	26 November 2001	1 November 2002	340 days	Independent
(8)		Vlado Bučkovski (born 1962)	1 November 2002	17 December 2004	2 years, 46 days	SDSM
9		Jovan Manasievski (born 1968)	17 December 2004	26 August 2006	1 year, 252 days	LDP
10		Lazar Elenovski (born 1971)	26 August 2006	27 July 2008	1 year, 336 days	New Social Democratic
11		Zoran Konjanovski (born 1967)	27 July 2008	28 July 2011	3 years, 1 day	VMRO-DPMNE
12		Fatmir Besimi (born 1975)	28 July 2011	18 February 2013	1 year, 205 days	BDI
13		Talat Xhaferi (born 1961)	18 February 2013	19 June 2014	1 year, 121 days	BDI
14		Zoran Jolevski (born 1959)	19 June 2014	31 May 2017	2 years, 346 days	VMRO-DPMNE
15		Radmila Šekerinska (born 1972)	31 May 2017	17 January 2022	4 years, 231 days	SDSM
16		Slavjanka Petrovska (born 1982)	17 January 2022	Incumbent	2 years, 99 days	SDSM