South Korea has provided Mongolia with some US$300,000 worth of coronavirus diagnostic kits as part of a project to create and share a reserve of medical supplies among countries in the region to respond jointly to pandemics like the coronavirus, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
The two sides held a ceremony in Ulaanbaatar to mark the delivery of the COVID-19 kits, attended by South Korean Ambassador to Mongolia Lee Yeo-hong and Mongolian Health Minister Sereejav Enkhbold, the ministry said.
The provision of the test kits came as a trial run of establishing a multinational reserve of medical supplies to respond to future health emergencies, a proposal Seoul made to its Northeast Asian neighbors in May.
“At the delivery ceremony, the ambassador hoped that the pilot operation of the joint reserve scheme through this assistance will serve as a stepping stone for the substantive development of the Northeast Asia Conference on Health Security,” the ministry said.
Enkhbold thanked the South Korean government for the provision, noting that Seoul’s efforts for regional cross-border health security cooperation will be of substantive help to his country amid the pandemic, according to the ministry.
South Korea made the proposal at a session of the Northeast Asia Conference on Health Security — a forum launched late last year at President Moon Jae-in’s suggestion to foster joint efforts to handle pandemics and other challenges.
Source: Yonhap News Agency