On Wednesday 15 April, NATO Defence Ministers held a videoconference, focusing primarily on the military consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For a more efficient coordination of the joint efforts, Defence Ministers of Finland and Sweden as well as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell were also invited to the videoconference.
The NATO nations’ armed forces play an important role in facing the current pandemic, which shows the necessity and importance of investments into defence and into strengthening the overall resilience of the population.
NATO authorities will coordinate the logistics of mutual assistance, analyse the experience and tried and tested procedures of the nations, cooperate with EU Headquarters, and will come up with a preliminary plan for pandemics management, which should better prepare NATO for a potential repetition of a similar situation in the future.
There is at the same time a consensus that the member nations’ armed forces must continue to perform missions in joint operations such as Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan or enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) in the Baltics.
In their contributions, the Defence Ministers of Spain and the Republic of North Macedonia thanked the Czech Republic for assistance with medical equipment. NATO membership has helped us deal with the crisis: we made use of three flights from the SALIS program and ordered protective equipment via the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA).