After the conflict, Azerbaijan spent approximately 15 billion US dollars on reconstruction efforts and allocated around 25 percent of the state budget annually for this purpose, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev said during his speech at the event titled “Housing at the Center of Post-Crisis Recovery and Reconstruction” held within the framework of WUF13.

Axar.az informs, citing APА, “Every country and every situation has its own unique challenges. For us, one of these challenges is mines. You may be ready for recovery and reconstruction, but there must be a suitable environment for this process to begin. One of the problems we faced in Azerbaijan was that there were 1.5 million mines that had to be cleared before starting recovery and reconstruction. This means that you may be financially prepared, and there may be favorable political conditions such as a peace agreement or ceasefire, but because of the mines, it becomes impossible to enter those territories and begin reconstruction.

However, I think the model we have developed over the past few years is a good example for the world. After the conflict, Azerbaijan spent approximately 15 billion US dollars and allocated around 25 percent of the state budget annually for this purpose. This is a good example for conflict-affected countries: if you are rebuilding everything from scratch, you must build back better,” Yalchin Rafiyev noted.