On 19 March, the US government halted its funding for removing land mines in Nagorno-Karabakh which was carried out by the British NGO HALO Trust and was the largest American aid program in the contested territory, reported Eurasianet. 

The US officials said the decision to defund the program was motivated by the virtual completion of the project and the need to direct resources to higher priorities rather than by any political considerations. “With casualties at an all-time low and contaminated land in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast sparse, there are a number of opportunities that our agencies see for US assistance funding that could have a greater impact on the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, such as preparing the populations for peace,” wrote Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, and Richard Parker, Assistant Administrator of USAID for Legislative and Public Affairs.

In nearly two decades of operations, HALO has cleared more than 2,000 anti-tank mines and over 9,000 anti-personnel mines from the area, making 48 million square meters of territory again safe for humans. In 2018, Halo reported that it expected to complete demining in Karabakh by 2020. But in 2019, it started a new survey, which uncovered several new minefields in the region of Martakert (within the Soviet-legacy Karabakh boundaries, which are funded by private donations and not by USAID).

The de-facto Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh also issued a statement in regard to the halting of the funding. "The USAID funding for the humanitarian demining programs of the The HALO Trust NGO in Nagorno-Karabakh was implemented in accordance with the planned schedule and budget, which expired in 2020. However, humanitarian demining work in Nagorno-Karabakh is not complete yet, and mine hazards for the population of Karabakh remain. In this context, it is regrettable that the decision to halt funding for the project has been made. However, it should be noted that the U.S. Congress continues the discussions on the U.S. Foreign Appropriations Bill for the next fiscal year, and 75 Congressmen have addressed a letter to the leadership of the Congressional Appropriations Committee, calling for [the] 2021 budget to envisage funding for the continuation of demining activities in Nagorno-Karabakh,“ the statement read.

According to the Director of the Bureau for the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party Kiro Manoyan, the halting of the funding could be perceived as a message to Azerbaijan that the US fully shares Baku’s position on its policy towards the region.

Azerbaijan has long opposed the demining program, arguing that it perpetuates and encourages Armenian forces’ occupation of Azerbaijani territory. Most international organizations declined to operate in Karabakh because doing so usually results in being blacklisted by Azerbaijan. Halo is the most prominent organization that received this sanction. However, there was no evidence that the Azerbaijani lobby in Congress influenced that decision.

A few days later, the Armenian Center for American Studies also revealed that the US plans to provide $16 million aid to Armenia for 2021. This would be the largest aid provided within the Foreign Assistance Program to Armenia after the Velvet revolution. However, the center also showed a graph where the amount of aid provided to pre-revolutionary Armenia was much greater.