The Israeli government cannot afford any foreign visits due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, but keeps active contacts with Russia and maintains a daily dialogue between the foreign ministries, charge d'affaires ad interim of Israel to Russia Yacov Livne told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The Israeli government cannot afford any foreign visits due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, but keeps active contacts with Russia and maintains a daily dialogue between the foreign ministries, charge d'affaires ad interim of Israel to Russia Yacov Livne told Sputnik.
"In Israel, we are facing the challenges of an additional rise in numbers of infections and are putting a great effort into solving this problem. The situation currently requires the full attention of the Israeli leadership, which therefore cannot have visits abroad. I hope that the situation will change in the nearest future," Livne said.
He noted that despite the pandemic, Israel and Russia maintained "very important and intense dialogue" on all levels, including phone calls between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreign ministers Gabi Ashkenazi and Sergey Lavrov, defense ministers Benjamin Gantz and Sergei Shoigu.
"A good and continuous dialogue takes place daily between our foreign ministries in both Moscow and Jerusalem. Israel and Russia have many topics to cover and I am confident that our fruitful discussions will continue," Livne said.
In mid-May, Israel appeared to have successfully contained the spread of coronavirus in the country. Since June, however, the numbers began to climb steeply and have now exceeded many metrics from the first wave. The country has so far registered nearly 64,000 infected, a vast majority of whom have caught the virus since June. A total of 474 people in Israel have died from the disease.
