Visit by the Deputy Minister, Hon. Edmondo Cirielli, to the UN base in Brindisi

Deputy Minister Cirielli today visited the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) and the UN Global Service Centre at Brindisi Airport. The first base of this kind, established by the United Nations and financed by Italy since 2000, UNHRD provides international logistical services and emergency aid to respond to humanitarian crises around the world, thanks to its Humanitarian Response Depot. The Centre for Global Services, on the other hand, provides support to UN peacekeeping operations around the world, to which Italy is the seventh largest contributor. As the Deputy Minister said, “the base was a great intuition, which goes back a long way to the present day, a model that has been exported from Brindisi to the whole UN system, and therefore we believe it is a reality that should be strengthened also in terms of infrastructure”. Deputy Minister Cirielli added: “The base certainly needs an intervention by the Italian government to enable its expansion and make it fit for operation, with direct returns in terms of potential for the territory and for the enhancement of human resources.”