New Delhi. JSC Rosoboronexport (part of the Rostec State Corporation) has donated medical supplies to the Republic of Peru to fight COVID-19 as part of its humanitarian activities.
The humanitarian cargo, including Russian-made test systems for the timely identification of infected persons and providing them with medical assistance, was handed over to the Peruvian side on August 19.
“Rosoboronexport highly appreciates the level of military-technical cooperation between Russia and Peru, which turns 50 this year. To date, the value of signed contracts between our countries has exceeded $1 billion. In 2020, Peru, along with many countries of the world, faced a novel coronavirus pandemic. Seeing the threat to the life and health of the population of our long-term partner, Rosoboronexport decided to provide it with free humanitarian aid to effectively combat COVID-19,” said Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheev.
Peru has been successfully operating Russian military helicopters, aircraft and other military products. The implementation of a large-scale offset program to build a Helicopter Maintenance and Repair Center and flight simulator centers is now in its final phase.
Military-technical cooperation between the USSR and Peru began 50 years ago, when the USSR sent humanitarian aid to the department of Ancash destroyed by an earthquake. It was then that the first pieces of Soviet military equipment – Mi-8 helicopters, a military field hospital, ambulances, as well as medical equipment, drugs, warm clothing, tents and necessary equipment were donated to Peru to eliminate the consequences of the natural disaster.
As part of humanitarian aid to the Peruvian population, a group of Soviet military, engineers and medical workers, as well as a youth detachment of 55 volunteers, went to the country. They provided medical assistance to the affected population, including against the background of an aggravated epidemiological situation, for three months. In addition, Soviet specialists carried out search and rescue operations in hard-to-reach mountain areas and restored destroyed settlements.
Soviet specialists conducted trainings for Peruvian pilots and rescuers, trained hundreds of volunteers among the local population to provide medical assistance. A military field hospital, donated to Peru and giving rise to a multidisciplinary hospital, was deployed In Huaraz, the capital of the department of Ancash, and is still in operation.
