On May 3, The First Deputy Defence Minister Davit Tonoyan and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USA to Armenia, John A. Heffern attended the monitoring of the demining activities, launched on April 1 in the Srashen community of the Syunik province with donor assistance provided by the US State Department.

Demining activities are carried out in the 16 confirmed mine-exposed areas of the 4 communities of the Syunik province, based on the technical task presented by the "Humanitarian Demining and Expertise Center" SNCO, supported by the "HALO Trust" international organization and 21 deminers of the peacekeeping engineering-sappers battalion of the ARM MoD. The international technical and inspection consultancy on humanitarian demining will be carried out by the experts from the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action, while the administration and supervision of the quality as well as the adoption of the final results of the activities will be carried out by the Humanitarian Demining and Expertise Center" SNCO. This phase of the program will last more than a year, with a prospect of sequel in the future. During the visit, detailed information was presented to the First Deputy Defence Minister Davit Tonoyan and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USA to Armenia, John A. Heffern, regarding the mine hazards in a given region, the public awareness mechanisms about them and the progress of demining activities. The First Deputy Defence Minister Davit Tonoyan highly praised the demining activities, carried out with the support of the deminers of the AAF and international agencies, under the coordination of the "Humanitarian Demining and Expertise Center" SNCO, noting that this is the first joint international project of the SNCO, after the demining activities and certification of the mine-free zones, carried out last year. Davit Tonoyan expressed the hope for ensuring continuity of activities and final demining of the mine-exposed areas in Armenia. John Heffern also emphasized the implementation of demining activities with the financial assistance of the U.S. State Department and ensuring the safety of the areas for the residents. At the end of the visit, the explosion of the first mine, discovered in the area of Srashen during the demining activities, was carried out by the First Deputy Defence Minister Davit Tonoyan and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USA to Armenia, John A. Heffern as a sign of effective cooperation.