Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proposed the creation of a “safe corridor” that will allow travel between countries that have successfully contained the first coronavirus wave. The proposal was made to the leaders of Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Norway and Singapore during a teleconference on Thursday.
Aims of the safe corridor proposal is to revive tourism that came to halt since March due to the pandemic.
Mitsotakis put forward the proposal for further bilateral talks and the development of protocols that will allow holidaymakers to travel safely without putting their own or the local communities they are visiting at risk.
As many of the countries are already opening or examining the opening of their borders to their neighbors, the Greek Prime Minister underlined the importance of cooperation among the countries within the group that have a very low number of coronavirus cases in the sector of tourism.
Τηλεδιάσκεψη με ηγέτες κρατών που συγκράτησαν με επιτυχία το 1ο κύμα του κορωνοϊού. Εκτεταμένη συζήτηση έγινε για τον τουρισμό, όπου πρέπει να συμφωνηθούν πρωτόκολλα & «ασφαλείς διάδρομοι» που θα επιτρέψουν τη μεταφορά ανθρώπων μεταξύ συγκεκριμένων χωρών. https://t.co/kjBLi31kX9 pic.twitter.com/0DywR3RIFZ
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) May 7, 2020
Important cooperation among nations 🇦🇺 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇩🇰 🇬🇷 🇮🇱 🇳🇴 🇸🇬 that have taken actions early that have appeared to yield results in fighting COVID-19 and navigating a path out of lockdown. https://t.co/zYFyowt5me
— Frode Overland Andersen (@norwayingreece) May 7, 2020
He suggested a more systematic discussion between the eight countries focusing on specific protocols and which aims to create ‘safe corridors’ that will allow the movement of people between specific countries according to rules.
In the first teleconference of this kind on April 24, also the leader of New Zealand had participated.
The leaders discussed also strategies on how to deal with the second wave of the pandemic.
Greece’s Transport minister revealed earlier on Thursday that if Europe does not find a solution for traveling amid the pandemic, Greece is considering signing bilateral agreements with other countries for international flights.
Looking at the figures and results in the Netherlands, this country would certainly also be eligible to discuss a bilateral agreement, given that the covod-19 virus has so far been successfully combated. Even better than in Sweden, for example.