Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has been engaged with his counterparts from the United States, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and Vietnam in weekly telephonic conversations between 20 March 2020 and 15 May 2020 to share ideas and best practices among these countries in the Indo-Pacific region for responding to the unique and complex challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. This practice of weekly telephonic conversations was initiated by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun.