Lithuania, Iceland sign memorandum of understanding on demining coalition

VILNIUS – Lithuania and Iceland last week signed a memorandum of understanding for a demining coalition, enabling the establishment of a coalition fund and initiating procurement.

The Defense Ministry told BNS that other countries are expected to join in over the summer. A total of 22 countries are participating in the coalition.

Lithuania started building up the Demining Coalition for Ukraine last summer at a remote Ramstein-format meeting of Ukraine’s donors.

At that time, countries with the capacity to train deminers or to provide Ukrainian troops with the necessary equipment were invited to join.

A protocol of intent on demining coalition for Ukraine was signed on the sidelines of the 19th Ramstein meeting in Brussels in February this year.

At the meeting of the Ramstein-format Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Lithuania and Iceland assumed the leadership of the coalition, which aims to assist the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and its Armed Forces with the procurement of demining equipment and training in the areas of humanitarian and combat demining respectively. A fund is planned to be set up to carry out joint procurement.

The countries participating in the coalition are free to choose the nature and extent of their assistance – to support combat demining, humanitarian demining or both.

According to the ministry, the support is expected to take the form of financial contributions for joint procurement, support for necessary equipment, and training for Ukrainians.

Joining the coalition does not preclude countries from providing assistance to Ukraine on a bilateral or multilateral basis.

According to the ministry, Lithuania has made an initial contribution of 17 million euros to the Coalition Fund, and 26 M113 armored personnel carriers and 370 anti-drones have been transferred to Ukraine in response to its very urgent needs for demining equipment.

Sweden is also said to be contributing 5 million euros to the Coalition Fund.