A shipment of medical equipment and medicines donated by Turkey to Indonesia for battling the COVID-19 pandemic arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Sunday evening.
Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the medical aid consisted of 50 sets of ventilators and 600,000 boxes of medicine.
The Turkish embassy's charge d'Affaires, Burak Ali Karacan, handed over the aid to Indonesia's Ministry of Health. Various representatives of the ministry were present on the occasion.
"The medical equipment and medicine will be distributed to health facilities in various regions of Indonesia," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
It said this support will help strengthen relations and bilateral cooperation further between the two countries.
Indonesia and Turkey will commemorate 71 years of diplomatic relations this year.
Indonesia has so far recorded 3.6 million cases of COVID-19, including 107,096 deaths, while 2.08 million patients have recovered.
The figures make Indonesia the country most affected by the pandemic in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Just after the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, Turkey was one of the first countries to provide medical assistance to the Asian country. The first aid packages were delivered to China on Jan. 31, with protective overalls, 93,500 medical masks, 500 medical protective glasses and 10,000 nonsterilized pieces of equipment. Since then, Turkey has sent medical aid packages to many corners of the globe, including developed Western countries and NATO allies.
