1. The Trilateral Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), chaired by Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Chung Byung-won, was held in Seoul on September 26, with Japanese Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Funakoshi Takehiro and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong in attendance.

2. The SOM leaders appreciated that this meeting, which was the first meeting in nearly four years, served as an opportunity to revitalize trilateral consultative mechanism among Korea, Japan, and China, which had been stalled due to COVID-19 and other challenges. In addition, considering that there is a consensus among the leaders of the three countries on holding a trilateral summit, they decided to steadily prepare for the summit.

3. The SOM leaders decided to hold the summit at the earliest convenient time for the three countries and to continue discussing the specific date of the summit. In addition, the SOM leaders decided to hold the Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in a couple of months to prepare for the summit.

4. The SOM leaders agreed that in the process of restoring the trilateral consultative mechanism, it is crucial to produce tangible outcomes which can be felt by the people of the three countries, and decided to continue consultations.

5. Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Chung Byung-won met with Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Funakoshi and Assistant Foreign Minister Nong separately on September 25, and exchanged opinions on issues, including the direction of trilateral cooperation.