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Home Newsroom News and press releases OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe and U.S. Department of State donate demining equipment to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence and Tajikistan National Mine Action Centre
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OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe and U.S. Department of State donate demining equipment to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence and Tajikistan National Mine Action Centre

22 February 2018
Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe (centre), Rodney A. Robideau, Grants Officer Representative in the United States Department of State (centre-left), and General Mirovar Khushbakht Mirshakar, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan (centre-right), pose for a group photo, Dushanbe, 20 February 2018. (OSCE/Bakhriniso Shamsieva ) Photo details

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe held a ceremony to mark its donation of humanitarian demining equipment to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence and the National Mine Action Centre on 20 February 2018.

The Defence Ministry’s Humanitarian De-mining Company received two vehicles and the Centre one vehicle. They were jointly donated by the OSCE Programme Office and the United States Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs/Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, said: “I would like to thank the Ministry of Defence for its immense contribution toward making Tajikistan free of landmines and explosive remnants of war and thank the United States Department of State for its financial contribution to support the two demining teams.”

General Mirovar Khushbakht Mirshakar, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan, said: “I am very glad to be present today at this ceremony as it is also held at the time when we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Tajikistan Armed Forces. We appreciate the support and we are ready to co-operate in future in the field of humanitarian demining.”

Rodney A. Robideau, Grants Officer Representative in the United States Department of State, stressed: “We are glad to have worked with Tajikistan on mine action, small arms and light weapons, physical security and stockpile management projects for the past eight years. On behalf of the Unites States I acknowledge and appreciate the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe for its efforts in support of the humanitarian mine action activities in Tajikistan.”

The OSCE together with the U.S. Department of State has been supporting the Humanitarian De-mining Company of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence through partnership with the National Mine Action Centre since 2009.