be European, using all resources. This
is the most critical moment for the EU
since its foundation and we all have to
row in the same direction”. In subsequent
press conferences, Sánchez insisted that
“COVID-19 affects all of us and knows no
borders, gender or class”, therefore, the
EU “must foster a reconstruction plan
that strengthens the mechanisms of the
European welfare state”.
For its part, NATO, as explained by
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
following the meeting of the
Alliance’s Foreign Ministers held by
videoconference on April 2nd to study the
allied response to SARS-CoV-
2, “is deploying all the
necessary mechanisms in
this common fight against
an invisible enemy”. Since
the outset of the crisis,
the Euro-Atlantic Disaster
Response Coordination
Centre (EADRCC) has
been enabling the partners
and Allies to help one
another in order to respond
to requests from the most
needy. In this regard,
on March 29th, a C130
Hercules landed in Torrejón
de Ardoz with a cargo of
10,000 personal protective
equipment (PPE) items
donated by the Czech
Republic, while on April 1st
an aircraft from the Turkish
air force landed in Spain
with PPE and disinfectant
solutions. Other allies
such as Latvia and Luxemburg have
also helped Spain while Japan, a
NATO partner, has been able to do so
through the EADRCC. Italy has received
medical supplies from Turkey and has
been provided with ten field hospital
intensive care units donated by the U.S.
European Command. Also, the Euro-
Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination
Centre has allowed field hospitals of one
country to care for patients from another
(Germany has taken in patients from
Italy and France) and medical staff from
Albania and Poland have travelled to Italy.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, during an online pre-ministerial press
The Atlantic Alliance has also
provided its members with two strategic
transportation programs overseen by
NATO: the Strategic Airlift Capability
(SAC), whereby Allies and their partners
jointly own and operate three heavy-lift
Globemaster C-17 aircraft; and the
Strategic Airlift International Solution
(SALIS) that allows Antonov aircraft to
be rented when required (in March,
more than 200 tonnes of medical
equipment were flown to the Czech
Republic, Romania and Slovakia), and
four field hospitals have been provided
to Luxembourg. The NATO Centre of
Excellence for Military Medicine (NATO
MILMED COE) is also strengthening
its research on SARS-CoV-19 and
conference from Brussels on April 1st.
monitoring prevention measures in all
NATO missions and operations, while
the NATO Support and Procurement
Agency (NSPA) is collaborating with
private companies for the manufacture of
medical equipment.
PROTECT AND ASSIST
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the
UN Secretary General has shown his
concern for the weakest countries, “no
doubt, the most vulnerable to the disease
and its consequences”. On March 20th,
Guterres called for an immediate global
ceasefire to help create humanitarian
corridors to distribute aid and he also
called for special attention to be given
to refugees and their helplessness in the
face of COVID-19. Measures are also
being taken at the Department of Peace
Operations, which is implementing a
series of measures both for the protection
of its troops and for some missions so
that they can extend their mandate and
collaborate with local authorities in the
fight against the pandemic and in support
of the local population, with special focus
on the Women, Peace and Security
agenda to incentivize the essential role
played by women in terms of hygiene
and health in the most affected areas.
At the same time, the UN is reviewing
the rotations of its foreign
mission personnel for
the next six months and
studying deployments to
determine which missions
or parts of the mandate of
some operations should
be suspended in order to
facilitate the confinement
decreed by the World
Health Organization. It
has also recommended
to the other organizations
that carry out missions
under the mandate of the
Security Council —NATO
and the EU— that they do
the same with their troops.
Spain has withdrawn
almost 200 soldiers from
its contingent in Iraq as
the COVID-19 crisis “has
halted the training tasks
they were assigned to”,
as explained by Spanish
NATO
Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles.
The Defence Department has also
withdrawn part of the 65 Spanish troops
in Afghanistan under the NATO Resolute
Support Mission. In coordination with the
Foreign Affairs Ministry, the aircraft used
for the repatriation of these contingents
were also used to evacuate around 30
European citizens. Specifically, one
German and 14 Spanish citizens flew
with the military in the aircraft from Iraq;
while six German, one Swiss and three
French nationals flew in the aircraft from
Kabul, Afghanistan, which stopped in
Abu Dhabi to pick up eight Spanish
tourists who were trapped there.
Rosa Ruiz
April 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 29