1. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang, Kyung-wha had a multilateral teleconference with foreign ministers of the Ministerial Coordination Group on COVID-19 for about 90 minutes on April 17, Korea Standard Time, as a result of which the foreign ministers adopted the “Declaration of the Ministerial Coordination Group on COVID-19 on maintaining essential global links.”

° The Declaration calls for global cooperation in responding to COVID-19, including mitigating the disruption to the global economy, trade and travel, delivering a strong and coordinated global health response including developing a vaccine and relevant treatments, and sharing best practices.

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° In particular, as proposed by the Republic of Korea, in the Declaration, the Coordination Group encouraged permitting essential travel, including business travel, in order to minimize the social and economic impact of COVID-19.

° The joint Declaration, a summary of the discussions of the Coordination Group in which the ROK has taken an active part since its inception, is expected to promote international collaboration among the participating countries on response to COVID-19.

2. The foreign ministers also engaged in a discussion focused on ways to normalize economic activities and daily lives in their respective countries. Minister Kang delivered leading remarks regarding the issue at the request of Canada, which had proposed the meeting.

° Minister Kang mentioned that, since the initial stages of the COVID-19 crisis, the ROK government has continued to seek ways to enable people’s economic activities and daily lives while curbing the spread of COVID-19 infections, and with thorough disease control measures in place, administered a parliamentary election on April 15 as scheduled. She also explained that, currently, the ROK government is carefully looking into requirements for the transition to the “prevention on a daily basis” and how to prepare for it.

° Minister Kang also stressed that the basic prerequisite for the normalization of economic activities is stopping the spread of COVID-19 infections through continued active implementation of “3Ts” -- Testing, Tracing and Treat. She explained that it is desirable to take measures in a phased way to normalize economic activities, considering the importance as well as risks of different regions and industries to the extent that the respective countries’ medical and disease control systems can deal with them.

3. The foreign ministers, recognizing the importance of a gradual and cautious approach as well as the 3Ts for the normalization of economic activities, agreed to continue close bilateral and multilateral communication and collaboration on response to COVID-19, while actively sharing best practices with one another.