Italian C-27J Spartan delivers ventilators to North Macedonia on behalf of NATO

Italian C-27J Spartan delivers ventilators to North Macedonia on behalf of NATO.

On 30 October 2020, a C-27J Spartan tactical transport aircraft belonging to the 46th Air Brigade of the Italian Air Force delivered 60 ventilators to Skopje, North Macedonia, as part of the Alliance’s support to Allies to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation was coordinated by NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) in response to a request from the nation.

The ventilators will be distributed to local hospitals in the coming days. They were delivered during a small ceremony at the international airport in Skopje in the presence of North Macedonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani, Minister of Defence Radmila Shekerinska Jankovska and Minister of Health Venko Filipche, as well as of the Director of the Crisis Management Centre, Agron Buxhaku. The ceremony was also attended by Colonel Zoran Jankovic, Chief of the NATO Liaison Office in North Macedonia.

The ventilators are part of a donation from the United States to the NATO stockpile in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were stored by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency in a warehouse facility at the NSPA Southern Operational Centre in Taranto, Italy. The air delivery mission was funded by Luxembourg and managed by the European Air Transport Command (EATC), a multinational command for air transport, air-to-air refueling and aeromedical evacuation.

NATO has established a stockpile of medical equipment in order to be able to provide immediate relief to Allies or partners in need. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is managing the purchase and storage of relief items for the stockpile. Several Allies have made financial and in-kind donations of medical equipment and supplies to the Pandemic Response Trust Fund. North Macedonia was one of the first Allies to make a financial contribution to the Pandemic Response Trust Fund.

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Source, Images: Italian Air Force, NATO