Croatia: Ignazio Cassis attends Zagreb conference on humanitarian demining

Swiss Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis has confirmed he will attend the upcoming donors’ conference on humanitarian demining in Ukraine, to be held on 11 and 12 October in Zagreb. It is also an opportunity for the Swiss Foreign Minister to invite participants to the next edition of this conference, to be held in Geneva in October 2024.

For over 25 years, Switzerland has supported the international community’s political and humanitarian efforts in the field of humanitarian demining.

At the end of September, the Federal Council decided to take a further step by making humanitarian demining a priority for its action in Ukraine.

On 29 September 2023, the Federal Council approved a CHF 100 million package entirely devoted to demining civilian areas in Ukraine. The package, provided in equal parts by the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport and the FDFA, will be implemented between 2024 and 2027. It will form part of Switzerland’s cooperation programme in Ukraine.

Invitation to high-level conference in Geneva in autumn 2024

With its cutting-edge expertise in mine action, Switzerland is mobilising its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to make the reconstruction of Ukraine possible. Switzerland’s financial, technical and diplomatic commitment is in keeping with the spirit of Lugano, launched in 2022 at the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine.

In Zagreb, together with the Ukrainian representatives also in attendance, Mr Cassis will extend an invitation to all the participating states to the next high-level conference on humanitarian demining in Ukraine, which will take place in Geneva in the autumn of 2024. In the spring of that same year, an initial technical conference will be held in Kyiv, organised jointly by Switzerland, Ukraine and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.

Close collaboration also with Croatia

Bilateral meetings will also be held in Croatia. In particular, Mr Cassis will meet Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. . He will take that opportunity to also thank the Croatian government for organising the conference. Furthermore, he will underscore the close collaboration that Switzerland and Croatia have forged in recent years, including in the field of humanitarian demining. The two countries share a common vision in the fight against landmines.

Meetings with the Ukrainian delegation are also on the agenda.