BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The EU plans to allocate an additional two million euros in grant funding to Azerbaijan this year as part of technical assistance for mine clearance, the Director-General of the European Commission for Neighborhood and Negotiations Gert Jan Koopman said at an event of the European Mine Action Team, Trend reports.
“The announcement of two million euros in grant funding this year to provide technical help to combat mines is very welcome,” he pointed out.
According to him, the European Union and its member states are the largest international donors in Azerbaijan's mine action field, having provided about 10 million euros in grant assistance in support of humanitarian demining in Azerbaijan since 2020.
“The European Commission is fulfilling our president’s promise to strengthen support for mine clearance in Azerbaijan.
Together with all EU Member States doing their part, we are ready to do even more to eliminate the threat of landmines. "Azerbaijan's needs are immense, and the efforts that the Azerbaijani authorities make every day in the field of mine clearance are colossal," he added.
Last month, 141 anti-tank, 191 anti-personnel mines, and 2,502 unexploded rounds of ammunition were found and neutralized in the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from Armenian occupation.
According to the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), a total of 6,038 hectares of land have been demined.
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