Turkey assures solidarity with US in Covid-19 fight

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey will show solidarity with the US in "combating the coronavirus outbreak" and the normalisation process which will follow the pandemic.

Erdogan sent a letter to US President Donald Trump with the medical aid that Turkey sent on Tuesday to the US to support the country’s fight against the coronavirus. The US has more than 1 million cases of Covid-19 which has killed at least 59,000 people in the country.

In the letter, Erdogan wrote he hoped Turkey's aid will help people in the US recover from Covid-19, voicing a strong belief that they will overcome this crisis soon, with wisdom.

Prepared under the instructions of Erdogan and by Turkey's defence ministry, the medical aid included 500,000 surgical masks, 4,000 overalls, 2,000 litres of disinfectant, 1,500 goggles, 400 N-95 masks and 500 face shields, according to the Turkish presidency.

Third biggest supplier of medical aid 

Turkey has helped at least 57 countries, including Italy, Spain and the UK.

Turkey is the third biggest supplier of medical aid worldwide amid the pandemic, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

On Twitter, Cavusoglu shared a message with the hashtags #StrongTurkey and #HumanitarianForeignPolicy, quoting 13th century scholar Jalaluddin Rumi. The same message was printed on aid boxes from Turkey: "After hopelessness, there is so much hope, and after darkness, there is the much brighter sun."

One of Cavusoglu's tweets, which included a photo of a medical aid plane from Turkey, said: "In addition to providing the largest amount of humanitarian aid in the world, Turkey is the third biggest supplier of medical aid worldwide during the coronavirus outbreak."