Estonian PPE equipment arrives in Spain
On Tuesday, Estonian personal protective equipment (PPE) and disinfectant sent from Tallinn arrived in Spain to help the country with its coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
Last week the Estonian government announced 60,000 masks would be sent to Spain and Italy to help the countries cope with their coronavirus outbreaks, which have been the worst in Europe.
Estonia is sending 30,000 face masks and 2,000 units of disinfectant produced by local producer Nordic Group OÜ to each country.
On Tuesday evening the government's Estonia in NATO twitter account said the equipment arrived in Spain and posted pictures of boxes bearing Estonian and Spanish flags.
Good news! Estonian assistance to Spain for the fight against #COVID19 has arrived in Zaragoza airport this evening! All the way from a warehouse in Tallinn #EsteVirusLoParamosUnidos #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/4PFZVWLWp1
— estNATO (@estNATO) April 21, 2020
The Estonian Ambassador to Spain Mariin Ratnik also tweeted a video on Monday showing the equipment destined for Spain and Italy being packed into boxes and loaded onto the plane.
Estonian support for Spain (and Italy) is on its way and will arrive soon! ???????????????????? @MFAestonia @estNATO @EstEmbRome @MAECgob pic.twitter.com/yEs6D7xeAf
— Mariin Ratnik (@MariinRatnik) April 21, 2020
As well as PPE equipment the Estonian government has decided to support both Spain and Italy with €100,000 each via the International Red Cross for the mitigation of the impact of the novel coronavirus.
Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center) said in statement last week. "At this difficult time, we must express our solidarity with those countries that have suffered the most from the spread of the coronavirus in Europe.
"Spain and Italy have requested assistance from their allies, and Estonia, together with other NATO member states, has decided to offer them the help they need."
The prime minister highlighted that both Italy and Spain have repeatedly demonstrated their solidarity and contributed to the security of the alliance and Estonia's region by participating in NATO battlegroups, air policing in the Baltic states and the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCD COE) in Tallinn.
"Thus it is quite evident that Estonia supports them in this difficult time for our allies," he added
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told ERR News on Wednesday aid will arrive in Italy at the end of the week.
Italy and Spain requested assistance via NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC). The EADRCC is NATO's principal disaster response mechanism.
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Editor: Helen Wright