The First Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM1) and Related Meetings of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) were held in Guangzhou from Sunday, February 1, to Tuesday, February 10.
※ The Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) serves as a high-level consultative mechanism for discussing ways to enhance cooperation among APEC member economies. Each year, four formal SOMs and one informal SOM are held, and their outcomes are reported at the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM).
The delegation of the Republic of Korea, led by Park Jonghan, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attended the SOM and the meetings of the four main committees; the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), the Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE), the Economic Committee (EC), and the Budget and Management Committee (BMC).
During the meetings, the Korean delegation expressed its support for a successful APEC 2026 and its commitment, as the previous host economy, to contributing to the meaningful continuation and development of the key deliverables of the 2025 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting throughout the APEC 2026 discussions.
At this meeting, China presented the theme and key priorities for APEC 2026, "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together: Openness, Innovation, Cooperation," and explained the deliverables to be pursued under each priority.
China also introduced plans to host more than 10 sectoral ministerial meetings and high-level dialogues, including the Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, the Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting, and the Transportation Ministerial Meeting. Furthermore, China plans to organize various high-level forums related to digitalization and innovation on the occasion of "Digital Week."
As the discussions and outcomes of these sectoral ministerial meetings will feed into the deliverables of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November, the Korean government plans to actively participate in relevant discussions to ensure that the key deliverables of the 2025 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting are fully reflected throughout the APEC process this year.
In addition, Deputy Minister Park held bilateral meetings with several member economies including China, Japan, Canada, and Vietnam, and exchanged views on: △China's APEC priorities and key deliverables for 2026, △follow-up measures to the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting being advanced by Korea as the previous host economy, and △the review of the Aotearoa Plan of Action and the direction for revising it.
※ Aotearoa Plan of Action (APA): A concrete action plan to achieve APEC's long-term vision, the Putrajaya Vision 2040 (adopted at the 2021 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting)
Meanwhile, as the previous host economy, Korea assumed the chairmanship of the Budget and Management Committee (BMC), which oversees the APEC budget for this year. Lee Jiyoon, Deputy Director-General for International Economic Affairs, presided over the 1st BMC meeting held on Monday, February 9.
Starting with this 1st Senior Officials' Meeting, APEC member economies will continue consultations for sustainable economic growth and regional integration in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on the theme and priorities presented by China, leading up to the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting scheduled for November 18-19.