On 22 April 2020 the ambassadors of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam accredited to Ukraine participated in a video conference to discuss the issue of COVID-19. The main purpose of the video conference was to follow up on the Declaration of the Special ASEAN Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) adopted by the ASEAN Leaders at the Special ASEAN Summit held via video conference on 14 April 2020. Specifically, Paragraph 9 (ii) of the said Declaration calls upon the ASEAN Member States to prioritise the well-being of ASEAN peoples in their collective fight against COVID-19 and provide appropriate assistance and support to the nationals of ASEAN Member States affected by the pandemic in each other’s country or in third countries.
The ambassadors from the three ASEAN countries in Kyiv agreed among others to compile data on nationals of ASEAN Members States that do not have diplomatic missions in Kyiv, who are currently stranded in Ukraine due to the quarantine measures imposed by Ukraine. In addition, they also decided that the Vietnamese Embassy in Kyiv will be the contact point in Ukraine in the event there are requests from ASEAN Member States for assistance in crisis situations in Ukraine including during outbreak of highly contagious and dangerous diseases.
