U.S. aid for humanitarian demining in Azerbaijan exceeds $30m - Assistant Secretary of State

The United States has provided more than $30 million to Azerbaijan for humanitarian demining since late ’90s, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Clarke Cooper said on April 2.

Speaking at Washington Foreign Press Center’s videoconference briefing on the release of the annual “To Walk the Earth in Safety” Report, Cooper highlighted his country's global leadership in landmine clearance and conventional weapons.

In 2019, the U.S. funded conventional weapons destruction efforts in 58 countries.

"Conventional weapons destruction is not limited to humanitarian mine action... Stockpiles of excess, poorly secured, or otherwise at-risk conventional weapons continue to challenge peace and prosperity worldwide. In the wrong hands, small and light weapons fuel political instability and violence, while aging ammunition stockpiles may explode without warning, devastating nearby population centers," Cooper said.

Asked about the reports that the U.S. administration recently ended funding for removing landmines in Azerbaijan’s occupied Karabakh region, and its implications for both Baku and Yerevan, Cooper told  TURAN's U.S. correspondent that generally, when countries become mine action-free, programming switches, or it matures into a space "where we are doing more about educating on avoiding mined areas."

"We also have dedicated programing beyond removal or abatement of mine fields..  When we get to the countries declared mine-action-free, what we can do on prevention of additional munitions being laid in a particular place, some places we’ve actually graduated and matured to weapons storage and also weapons destruction, especially if it’s something that has been decommissioned or is aging armaments."

As particular to Azerbaijan, he added, "there is a tie to the NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund project, and that is – I understand is one that is a legacy project that may still be in place."

"If we fast-forward to today and we’re looking at future budgets on a macro, I could tell you that for Fiscal Year 2021 the Trump administration has put – or focused – nearly 240 million for efforts globally."

Looking forward, he added, "there is a rise, an increase, what the government has been doing, and the Trump Administration has certainly continued that increase globally."

"But I would offer whenever there’s an adjustment on any particular partner, in many cases it is an adjustment of what we’re doing in the program either because there’s been a maturation with that partner state and what they’re doing, or, from a regional perspective, there may have been an augmented or identified area of a greater need," he concluded.

Since 1993, the United States has provided more than $3.4 billion in conventional weapons destruction assistance to more than 100 countries.

The latest annual "To Walk the Earth in Safety" report can be found here.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.