Spanish-bought ventilators and other medical equipment held in Ankara by Turkish authorities will take off for Spain on Monday, Spanish foreign minister Arancha González Laya said in an interview with Spanish network Antena 3.
The equipment is expected to be available for distribution among regional governments in Spain on Tuesday. The ventilators, produced by a company in Turkey, have been held by local authorities in Ankara since Friday.
On Friday, the foreign minister said the ventilators would not arrive on time because “the Turkish government understands that they are a priority for the treatment of its patients.”
However, Ankara said that the exporting company lacked the proper authorization because Turkey introduced strict controls on the export of medical equipment a month ago, as the novel coronavirus in the country started to worsen.
The situation was resolved late on Saturday, with the Spanish foreign minister tweeting thanks to her Turkish counterpart for authorizing the export.
“We will always stand by our friend Spain,” Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted back. “We will overcome these difficult times together.”
