1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Sei-young participated in a multilateral teleconference on COVID-19 response among the vice foreign ministers of 7 countries in the region on the morning of June 12.

o The teleconference among the vice foreign ministers of 7 countries -- the Republic of Korea, the United States of America, Japan, the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of India, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam -- had taken place nine times from March 20 to May 15, and the teleconference held today marked the 10^th one.

2. In the teleconference, the vice foreign ministers exchanged views on ways to facilitate regional cooperation on COVID-19 response, ways to resume economic activities, and the development of and equal access to vaccines and treatments.

3. Vice Minister Cho explained that although sporadic cluster infections are occurring in the ROK, mainly in the metropolitan area, the ROK government is not letting its guard down and responding to the virus by mobilizing all capabilities and resources for disease prevention and control.

o In addition, Vice Minister Cho emphasized that the ROK actively supports regional cooperation to tackle COVID-19, and suggested continuing to discuss ways to facilitate essential international travel of businesspeople, as well as ways to maintain global value chains through various frameworks for regional cooperation.

o Furthermore, Vice Minister Cho suggested that as treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 are global public goods, the international community continue to collaborate to ensure that they are available to vulnerable countries and individuals following their development.

4. The vice ministers, sharing the view that close communication among regional countries is important amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, noted that this teleconference had been useful, and agreed to hold them frequently.