BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 24. Demining activities are essential for the economic development and the reconstruction of Karabakh, Ambassador of Germany to Azerbaijan Ralf Horlemann told Trend.
“Germany has been a leader in the global effort to ban land mines for many years. And we have been engaged in various regions in the world, in Europe in the Balkans, for example, in Africa. There is a lot of knowledge and technology also among German companies, and there is a lot of support for multilateral organizations, mostly the UN, to financially support demining activities worldwide. We are doing the same in the case of Azerbaijan,” he said.
As the ambassador noted, if Azerbaijan was to join the Ottawa Convention to ban land mines, this would help us to contribute even more.
“Germany, with its own experience of reunification and reconstruction in East Germany, is very well aware of the magnitude of the task ahead of Azerbaijan in reconstructing Karabakh. It is a huge task. And we also share the feelings of the Azerbaijani people concerning the importance of reconstruction, because, during the German reunification and the reconstruction process, there evolved a lot of, let’s say, positive energy from all sectors in the society to engage in reconstruction. So, we have great sympathy and understanding of this situation. What is important for an engagement of German companies in the reconstruction process is a stable security situation,” Horlemann added.
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