WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea and Israel discussed the causes of the coronavirus pandemic and how to prevent future outbreaks, State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said on Monday.
"Pompeo and his counterparts discussed the importance of international cooperation, transparency, and accountability in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and in addressing its causes.� They also discussed collaboration toward preventing future global health crises, [and] reaffirming the importance of the rules-based international order," Ortagus said in a readout of the video conference.
The United States and Australia have both been highly critical of China's handling of the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. Pompeo and US President Donald Trump have claimed that they have evidence the virus came from a lab in Wuhan.
The World Health Organization (WHO) last week reiterated that COVID-19's published genomic sequence proves the virus's origin is natural and not a laboratory construct. The WHO has also said its declaration of a global health emergency earlier this year gave countries enough time to respond appropriately, while Beijing maintains it provided information in a timely fashion.
