The European Union (EU) delivered the first of two demining vehicles to Armenia during an official delivery ceremony in Yerevan on Wednesday, the Armenian government informs.
The delivery is a significant step towards increasing Armenia’s capacity to clear conflict-affected areas of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs).
The demining vehicle was provided by the EU European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments to the Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise, the national civilian operator for humanitarian demining in Armenia.
This assistance is part of the EU’s broader support to increasing Armenia’s resilience. In particular, landmines and ERWs remain a serious humanitarian and socioeconomic challenge in Armenia’s border communities, endangering the lives of civilians and limiting agricultural land use.
As part of the EU’s ongoing support in this domain, it is planned to provide another demining vehicle as well as two specialized ambulances in autumn, to further increase and expand Armenia’s capacity for safe humanitarian demining.
In addition to these new measures, the EU will provide training, technical expertise assistance, and contribute to the funding of operational costs of humanitarian demining operations in Armenia.
The demining vehicle presented today is expected to significantly improve the quality and speed of demining operations in Armenia. In practice, this means more effective protection of personnel involved in demining operations, faster return of land to civilian use, and increased efficiency of humanitarian demining operations in general.
