NATO wants to become a “zone free from coronavirus” to the summit in June. According to the AP, from the beginning of the pandemic, NATO headquarters in Brussels was closed for the media and other persons, but now the Military Alliance seeks to become a “free coronavirus zone.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his NATO colleagues hold a full-time meeting at the headquarters of the Organization to prepare the Summit of National Leaders, including President Joe Bayden. This is the first personality meeting of NATO foreign ministers since 2019.
European Union, on the contrary, canceled the full-time summit in Brussels due to a sharp increase in the number of cases of infection with the virus and will be held in video conferencing mode. Belgian health authorities stated that the country is “at the foot of the third wave” of infections, if the restrictions will not be strictly observed.
On Thursday, about 20 Polish medical workers will begin making vaccinations by some of about 4,000 employees of the military alliance headquarters.
Before meeting ministers of foreign affairs, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highly appreciated Poland as an ally who helps “support NATO, overcome pandemic consequences.”
Currently, people are vaccinated in Belgium over 65 years old and individuals with chronic diseases. About 7% of the population were vaccinated, and the government program is not working quickly enough to ensure that everything in NATO will be vaccinated by the time leaders from Europe and North America will gather at the Summit in June.
Alliance said that “we continue to closely coordinate your actions with the Belgian authorities.”