South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with the top diplomats of five countries to discuss global cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Seoul's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the top diplomats agreed on the importance of close coordination and communication among countries to achieve the two goals of containing the spread of the virus and normalizing economic and social activity.

In the meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the ministers also discussed how to promote personnel movement among countries, cooperation in battling the pandemic and global cooperation for economic recovery. 

During the discussion, Minister Kang said that South Korea has effectively contained COVID-19 while keeping its borders open, and it has made diplomatic efforts to ensure that essential workers can move for economic and humanitarian purposes despite each country's border closures.

She proposed continued cooperation among nations to maintain such openness, expressing hope that countries will share their experiences in implementing economic and fiscal policy measures as part of efforts to ride out the pandemic.

Counterparts from Australia, Brazil, India and Israel also took part in the meeting.