QATAR is well known for its humanitarian stand across the globe. This was evident when a shipment of aid and medical supplies was delivered to Italy yesterday upon the directives of the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to send medical aid to the friendly Italian Republic to confront and contain the outbreak of COVID-19.
The Qatar Fund for Development said that this shipment of 29 tonnes of medical aid, which was delivered in cooperation with the air transport aircraft of the Amiri Air Force, is part of a total of 260 tonnes of aid to be delivered in 12 flights.
Starting April 8, 2020, Qatar launched a medical air bridge to transport urgent medical aid to Italy and on transport aircraft C-17 of the Amiri Air Force, Qatar delivered two field hospitals with a capacity of 1,000 beds for both hospitals, equipment and medical supplies to Italy. Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, recently thanked Qatar for its assistance in its fight against the pandemic through its donation of two field hospitals.
“The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio expresses gratitude to the State of Qatar for donating Italy two field hospitals with 500 beds each. Thank you Qatar,” said the Italian Embassy in its official twitter account.
Qatar and Italy have always enjoyed excellent relations, placing high confidence in bilateral cooperation and having a continuous highlevel political dialogue, enabling a truly strategic partnership across all sectors. It must be noted that Qatar, under the wise leadership, has not forgotten its role and humanitarian duty towards friends, stressing its solidarity and standing with them during prosperity and distress. H H the Amir gave directives to send urgent medical assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran. H H the Amir directed urgent financial assistance to the sisterly State of Palestine, including medicines, medical supplies, foodstuffs, and fuel for generators to operate the hospitals in Gaza Strip.
Prior to that, Qatar had sent eight aircraft carrying 300 tonnes of urgent medical supplies to the People’s Republic of China, at a time when international airlines banned flights to Chinese airports. The medical assistance comes from joint international responsibility in combating the spread of this epidemic, which represents a common threat to the whole world.
The successive Qatari humanitarian initiatives reflect the positive role that Doha plays at the international level, especially in times of crisis and ordeals.
