The deputy foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic) and the Central Asia countries in an online meeting on Thursday discussed the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the EU Strategy for Central Asia.
The deputy foreign ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended the meeting. The Turkmen side was represented by the Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiyev, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in its press release.
During his speech, Hajiyev stressed that Turkmenistan, from the very beginning of the threat of the COVID-19’s spread, has established close working contacts with the UN, its specialized bodies and agencies, primarily with the WHO. In this regard, the country has registered COVID-19 vaccines from Russian and other foreign manufacturers, and launched the process of mass vaccination of the population.
The meeting participants also considered promising areas of cooperation between the countries of the Visegrad Group and Central Asia.
In this regard, the industrial sector, transport, trade, and cultural and humanitarian cooperation were identified as potential areas of interaction for Turkmenistan within the framework of the Visegrad Group+Central Asia dialogue.
The creation and possibilities of international transport corridors can become a separate area of cooperation between the countries of this format, according to the statement.
The Visegrad Group is an association of four Central European states – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The first meeting of the foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group and Central Asian countries took place in Budapest in February 2018.
