The finance ministers of South Korea and Japan held talks for the first time in seven years on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho met with his Japanese counterpart, Shunichi Suzuki, on the sidelines of the Asia Development Bank’s annual meeting in Songdo, Incheon.

Noting that the heads of the two nations had engaged in shuttle diplomacy for the first time in 12 years, Choo said Seoul and Tokyo are at a new juncture in their relations and stressed the need to make headway in bilateral cooperation.

Choo said he had expressed hope that Japan will swiftly restore South Korea to its whitelist of preferential trading partners. Tokyo revealed last Friday that it began the reinstatement procedures.

The two ministers also agreed to a resumption within the year of meetings between the two nations’ finance ministers that were held annually since 2006 to exchange views on economic and financial issues.

Such regular meetings were suspended in 2016 after bilateral relations became strained due to the installment of a statue in Busan honoring the victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery as well as the implementation of export curbs by Japan.