1. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang, Kyung-wha had a telephone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Stef Blok on the afternoon of March 23 at the latter’s request and exchanged views on the global spread of COVID-19 and ways to respond to it.

° Minister Kang mentioned that the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been witnessing a downward trend in the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, and yet it is actively dealing with risk factors including the inflow of COVID-19 from overseas due to its global spread as well as community transmission.

° Minister Blok highly commended the ROK’s effective response to COVID-19 through its outstanding diagnostic testing capacity and transparent information sharing, among others, expressed concern over the recent spread of COVID-19 in the Netherlands, and asked the ROK to share its successful experiences in disease control and to provide protective equipment.

2. Minister Kang explained that the ROK’s reinforced quarantine measure for people from Europe, effective from March 22, is designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 with the door kept open. She asked for the Netherlands’ cooperation to ensure that the measures the Netherlands has taken in response to COVID-19 do not lead to setbacks in essential people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

° Minister Blok voiced hope that the two countries, together with the international community, would overcome the challenges brought by COVID-19 and continue to step up people-to-people exchanges and cooperative relations.

3. During the telephone conversation, the two Ministers recognized the significance of bilateral cooperation in the process of responding to COVID-19, and agreed to continue close communication in this regard.