BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 1. The Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) and NATO have discussed cooperation in the field of humanitarian demining.
This was announced in a statement published by ANAMA following a meeting between Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors, Samir Poladov, and the delegation led by Head of NATO's Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Division, Eirini Lemos-Maniati.
According to the information, during the meeting, discussions were held on the current state of cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO in the field of humanitarian mine clearance, the importance of support from international partners in this direction, the progress of the project implemented within the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Program on the application of innovative methods of humanitarian mine clearance, as well as Azerbaijan's participation in other current and future projects within this program aimed at applying new generation high technologies and innovative methods to mine clearance activities.
Deputy Chairman of the ANAMA Board of Directors, Poladov, announced in the course of the meeting that 437 Azerbaijani citizens have been killed or injured as a result of mine incidents since November 2020. He emphasized that mines create serious obstacles to the return of former internally displaced persons to their homelands, slow down recovery and reconstruction work, and cause significant humanitarian, economic and environmental consequences.
In addition, Poladov informed the NATO delegation about ANAMA’s operations, the activities of the Goygol Training Center, as well as ANAMA’s international partnerships in the field of humanitarian demining.
The meeting is another indicator of the long-term cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO in the field of humanitarian demining. This cooperation covers the clearance of mines and other explosive ordnance, the application of new technologies in humanitarian demining activities, and the successful implementation of many joint projects.
