Foreign minister Cho Tae-yul said on Monday that South Korea, China and Japan are coordinating to finalize the date of the next trilateral summit. 

Seoul’s foreign ministry said that Cho made the remarks during a meeting with Lee Hee-sup, secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat(TCS), an organization established to promote peace and prosperity among the three nations. 

In the meeting at the ministry building, Cho expressed the hope that the TCS will contribute to trilateral relations through personnel and cultural exchange programs designed to promote mutual understanding and friendship between future generations of the three nations.

The secretary general said that the TCS will work to further enhance the foundation of trilateral cooperation and support the success of the trilateral summit. 

The TCS was officially launched in Seoul in 2011 with diplomats of the three nations acting as the secretary-general on a two-year rotating basis. 

They had been hosting trilateral summits on a rotating basis since 2008 but none have been held since December 2019 due to strained ties among the countries and the COVID-19 pandemic.