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At a government meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca restated a message of compassion and solidarity with the Turkish people hard hit by the earthquakes that jolted Turkey, saying that at the time of the meeting two aircraft from the Romanian Ministry of Defence (MApN) and one from NATO are flying to the earthquake-stricken area a second search and rescue team, as well as the equipment needed for their missions, told Agerpres.
"We will start the government meeting by expressing solidarity and compassion for the Turkish people, very hard tried by the disastrous earthquake two days ago, and I want to start by thanking all the state institutions that got involved in finding solutions to help the Romanian nationals in the Gaziantep area. Let's do it in such a way that we can provide the necessary support to the government of the Republic of Turkey in order to be able to manage the situation, once again, particularly disastrous, as best as possible. (...) As we speak, we already have two planes flying the second search and rescue team and another plane from the air transport capability to which Romania is a part (...) through which we fly the necessary means and equipment to enable the two teams deployed to Turkey to do their job," Ciuca told a government meeting on Wednesday.
He added that as a result of the situation in Turkey, he ordered, from the very first moment, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), through the consular service, take all the measures to make available to the Romanian nationals in Turkey the necessary means and methods by which they can receive support from the Romanian authorities, and MApN, through the means of air transport made available to the Emergency Management Department (DSU) to secure repatriation.
He also highlighted what he called the exemplary way in which DSU got mobilised to identify the first measures to secure the necessary help.
"By the way, Romania was the first country to arrive in the area affected by the earthquake and immediately went to the support of the population and the local authorities," said Ciuca.
He added that providing humanitarian aid to Syria was also considered.
"We discussed at the DSU level, and in coordination with the European institutions we will proceed to make good on our contribution to the effort to help the Syrian nationals affected by the earthquake," said Ciuca.
DSU has asked the Multinational Strategic Transport Unit for another C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. It will pick up materials from Otopeni airport and fly them to Adana airport on Wednesday, according to MApN.
