Senator the Hon Tim Ayres, Australia’s Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing has highly appreciated Cambodia’s mine clearance activities.
The appreciation was made while Senator the Hon Tim Ayres and H.E. Ly Thuch, Senior Minister and First Vice President of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) visited Apopo’s headquarters in Siem Reap province this morning.
On behalf of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, H.E. Ly Thuch expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of Australia for their support for Cambodia’s humanitarian mine action sector since 1994 and asked the Australian side for continued assistance until Cambodia achieves its goal of a mine-free nation by 2025.
H.E. Senior Minister also thanked Apopo Cambodia for training mine-detection giant pouched rats and dogs since 2014, and as of last year, the organisation has cleared nearly 10 square kilometres of landmine contaminated land.
Australia is a major development partner of Cambodia, providing so far over US$100 million for humanitarian mine action in the Kingdom.
Source: Agency Kampuchea Press