President Moon Jae-in held phone talks with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Tuesday to share their countries' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Presidential spokesperson Kang Min-seok said in a briefing that President Moon told the Austrian leader that South Korea had difficulties initially in the fight against the virus, but is seeing sharp drops in new cases recently thanks to extensive testing and thorough epidemiological surveillance. 

Kurz sought Moon's opinions on how to prevent a second wave of the pandemic, saying that it was impressive South Korea reduced the number of new infections in a short period of time. 

Moon reportedly stressed the need to keep the number of new infections under a certain figure while maintaining social and economic activities. He added that South Korea plans to enhance international cooperation by ensuring essential cross-border exchanges. 

The Austrian chancellor said that his country will soon end its travel restrictions, adding it will take steps to resume direct flights between the two nations as South Korea is an exemplary case in the fight against COVID-19.