By: V4 Agency
On the initiative of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries are to hold a video conference on Monday. Security in the Central European region is the main topic on the agenda, the government in Warsaw said.
The topics of the online meeting, convened with urgency under Poland’s V4 presidency, include Russia’s sabotage activities in the Czech Republic, the escalation of the situation in Belarus and Ukraine by Russia, and V4 cooperation aiming to strengthen the region’s security, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek wrote on Twitter.
In a statement issued later, Polish governmental spokesman Piotr Muller confirmed that one of the meeting’s topics was the expression of solidarity and support towards Prague. He recalled that the Czech Republic has recently announced the expulsion of 18 employees from the Russian embassy in Prague, identified earlier as secret service officers. The decision was linked to the explosions at Vrbetice in 2014 impacting shipments of ammunition to be delivered to Ukraine. In response, Russia’s foreign ministry labelled 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow as persona non grata.
Mr Muller recalled that several organisations and officials have expressed solidarity with the Czech Republic, including NATO, the chairmen of the five groups of the European Parliament and Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, among others. The foreign ministers, and later the house speakers of the V4 states (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), also issued a statement condemning the steps that endanger the security of the independent states.