The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold talks on the sidelines of a multilateral gathering in Malaysia on Friday.

According to the South Korean foreign ministry, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo will sit down for trilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya on the margins of the foreign ministers’ meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN).

Park is attending the ASEAN gatherings on behalf of the foreign minister, with the appointment process for Foreign Minister nominee Cho Hyun still in progress.  

A foreign ministry official in Seoul said that in Friday’s talks, the three nations will underscore the importance of trilateral cooperation and exchange views on regional affairs and global issues. 

These will be the first high-level talks among senior diplomats of the three countries since the launch of the Lee Jae Myung government in early June.