German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper it was impossible to expect any one country, including China, to compensate the losses over the spread of the coronavirus
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2020) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper it was impossible to expect any one country, including China, to compensate the losses over the spread of the coronavirus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already slammed the ideas of demanding compensation from China coming from the Western countries.
"I believe it is quite illusory to speak about demanding this money from China ... The belief that you can make one country foot the bill is relatively illusory," the minister said, adding that the response to the economic and financial consequences of the virus would cost more than the response to the virus itself.
Maas said he did not "understand" why the animal market in China's Wuhan, linked to several early COVID-19 cases, was able to reopen.
The German foreign minister said that the pandemics were linked to the issues of hygiene, which, in turn, was often linked to culture and customs.
"If we do not want this pandemic to repeat, a lot will depend on hygiene ... And everyone should make a contribution; perhaps, cultural customs will have to change. We do it here too. We communicate differently, we distance, we do not shake hands, we go everywhere wearing a mask," the minister said.
As of Friday, Germany has registered 133,830 coronavirus cases, including 3,868 deaths. Globally, the number of registered COVID-19 cases has exceeded 2,100,000.
The German economy ministry said earlier this week it was expecting the recession caused by the crisis to last until the middle of the year.
