NATO provides swift forest fire assistance to new Ally Montenegro
NATO provides swift forest fire assistance to new Ally Montenegro
19 July 2017
published by http://www.nato.int
Nato / Montenegro – NATO Allies and partners are providing aircraft and helicopters to help Montenegro deal with forest fires in the Lustica peninsula. Montenegro approached NATOs Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) for assistance on Monday (17 July 2017), and the request was immediately circulated to NATO Allies and partners. A Ukrainian fire-fighting aircraft Antonov 32P has been in Montenegro since Tuesday, and two helicopters contributed by Bulgaria and Switzerland arrived in Montenegro on Wednesday. Two more fire-fighting aircraft will be deployed from Israel in the coming days.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the assistance today, saying: I welcome that Allies and partners came forward in a matter of hours to help Montenegro deal with its devastating forest fires. Montenegro is our newest Ally, having joined the NATO family just over a month ago. Our rapid response demonstrates that we stand with our Allies. This is what Euro-Atlantic solidarity is all about.
The EADRCC is NATOs principal civil emergency response mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is active all year round, operational on a 24/7 basis, and involves NATOs 29 Allies and all partner countries. The Centre functions as a clearing-house system for coordinating both requests and offers of assistance mainly in case of natural and man-made disasters. More information is available here: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_146283.htm
