Hungary sends medical supplies to Turkiye

Hungary has delivered another 105 tonnes of medical supplies to Turkiye, to help the treatment of those injured in the earthquake in February, the foreign minister said in Ankara on Thursday.

Speaking at the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), Péter Szijjártó expressed his sympathies to Turkiye over the earthquakes on February 6, which killed over 50,000 people in southeast Turkiye and Syria.

In the first stage of the rescue efforts, Hungary sent 167 rescue troops and 29 dogs who saved 35 lives, the ministry cited Szijjártó as saying.

Later, Hungary delivered 1,500kg of medicine in an effort to relieve the Turkish healthcare system after the disaster. The latest delivery contained 105 tonnes of health-care and medical equipment, including “ventilators, bandages, IV equipment and medicine, assembled after consultation with Turkish authorities,” he said.

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Successful rescue efforts require international cooperation. Hungary supports an agreement on coordinating disaster management in OTS states, and is ready to take an active part in the work, he said.

Szijjártó thanked OTS states for standing up for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war. “It is important that as many of us as possible speak the language of peace, because a pro-war rhetoric is reigning in Europe … and we who want peace need to strengthen our efforts,” he said, noting that the majority of countries in the world want peace.

Hungary believes in cooperation based on mutual respect, as opposed to “a world tendency to create separate blocks in response to the war”, he said.

The country is therefore ready to participate in the Turkic Investment Fund, “a good example of such a cooperation”, which would also bring economic and trade relations with OTS countries to another level, he said.

The Fund “can also generate resources to the regional infrastructure developments necessary to ensure Hungarian energy security,” he said. Hungary’s energy supplies cannot be diversified without cooperation with the Turkic states, he said.