Visegrad Four Foreign Ministers to Discuss War in Ukraine Next Week

Prague/Bratislava, March 14 (TASR-correspondent) - Foreign ministers of Visegrad Four countries [V4: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia] will meet next week (March 21) in Prague to discuss the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the situation prevailing in the Middle East, TASR learnt from its special correspondent in Prague on Thursday. "The ministers are going to have an open discussion about current foreign affairs issues, such as the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine, the current situation in the Middle East or the enlargement of the EU. They will also discuss the beneficial role of the International Monetary Fund," stated the Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry. Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Lipavsky announced last week that the Czech Republic has discontinued Czech-Slovak intergovernmental consultations and cancelled the scheduled joint session of the two Governments. Lipavsky added that the upcoming meeting of V4 ministers serves as a case in point that the cooperation between the Czech Republic and Slovakia at other levels will continue. There's been a rift within the V4 group, as the Czech and Polish Governments hold different views on the war in Ukraine and aid for Kiev than the Slovak and Hungarian Governments. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Lipavsky also criticised recent meeting between Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. mf