The Visegrad Group countries at an extraordinary summit in Prague on Wednesday discussed the joint fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the migrant crisis on the Greek border and the EU's long-term budget, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has said
PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) The Visegrad Group countries at an extraordinary summit in Prague on Wednesday discussed the joint fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the migrant crisis on the Greek border and the EU's long-term budget, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has said.
As of today, the Czech Republic has five confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the first three recorded on March 1. Earlier on Wednesday, Poland reported the first coronavirus case on its soil. The other two Visegrad Group nations � Slovakia and Hungary � have not yet registered any patients confirmed to be infected.
"We discussed the developments around the coronavirus disease in our region and in Europe as a whole and agreed to closely cooperate in fighting the spread of this virus. In the coming days, the health chiefs of our countries will meet to plan specific events. We are ready to cooperate in the exchange of necessary medications. We also agreed that there is no need to close borders," Babis said at a press conference after the summit.
The four nations also expressed concern over the migrant crisis in Greece amid Turkey opening its borders and escalated tensions in Syria's Idlib. The prime ministers, in particular, expressed their readiness to provide support to Greece, including sending aid and police units to protect the country's southern border, which is also an EU border.
In addition, the summit's participants discussed the EU budget for 2021-2027 and agreed to coordinate positions in the run-up to the bloc's next summit on the matter, according to Babis.
