1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lee Taeho met with the Ambassadors of 11 Southeast Asian countries – the 10 member states of ASEAN and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste -- to the Republic of Korea (ROK) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the afternoon of February 28. He explained the current efforts of the ROK government and its capacity for responding to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and, in particular, asked each of the Southeast Asian countries not to take excessive entry measures against Koreans.

° Vice Minister Lee, while recognizing the Southeast Asian countries’ strong interest and concern over the recent spread of COVID-19 in the ROK as the cooperative relations have become closer, and people-to-people and material exchanges have been growing rapidly between the ROK and Southeast Asia, explained the ROK government’s preemptive, systematic and government-wide response efforts in a transparent manner, and underscored his hope that each of the Southeast Asian countries would continue to trust the ROK government’s disease control capacity.

° In particular, the Vice Minister stressed that, in order to overcome the COVID-19 situation swiftly and continue to stably develop friendly and cooperative relations between the ROK and the Southeast Asian countries, it is important for the two sides to work more closely together and build mutual trust, all the more so in this crisis.

2. Vice Minister Lee also voiced regret over the excessive and unreasonable measures to restrict entry of Koreans recently taken by some Southeast Asian countries.

° The Vice Minister asked the Embassies of the Southeast Asian countries to report on the situation in the ROK in an objective and comprehensive way to their governments and to cooperate actively in stably managing substantive cooperation as well as friendly and trustful relations between the ROK and each of the Southeast Asian countries.  

3. In response, the Ambassadors to the ROK extended appreciation to Vice Minister Lee for providing a detailed explanation on the current situation in the ROK at this separate meeting with diplomatic missions of Southeast Asian countries following the briefing held on February 24 for all the foreign missions in the ROK. They added that they are confident that the ROK government will overcome the current difficulty.

° The Ambassadors mentioned that, in particular, they will play a necessary role for their home countries to respond in a careful and balanced way based on a correct understanding of the situation in the ROK, adding that they will continue close communication with the ROK government.