Turkey discusses post-virus plan with 4 other nations

By Firdevs Bulut

ANKARA (AA) - Foreign ministers from Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia on Friday held a meeting via videoconferencing to discuss ways to combat the novel coronavirus.

The five countries form an informal bloc MIKTA.

In a tweet, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Held 17th Meeting of MIKTA Ministers of Foreign Affairs via videoconference today. Exchanged views on how to cope better with challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Discussed ways to further develop the MIKTA cooperation in the normalisation period."

Mexico's Marcelo Ebrard, Indonesia's Retno L. P. Marsudi, South Korea's Kang Kyung-wha and Australia's Marisa Payne attended the conference.

After emerging in China last December, COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has infected 13.81 million people worldwide, causing more than 590,200 deaths, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.

A vast majority, more than 7.72 million have gone on to make a recovery.