China is reportedly seeking a trilateral currency swap with South Korea and Japan to enhance the region’s financial safety net amid U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff war.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post issued the report on Wednesday, quoting a source familiar with the issue.

The source told the South China Morning Post that Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, discussed the issue with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Rhee Chang-yong and Kazuo Ueda, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington last week.

The newspaper said that it remains unclear how a trilateral currency deal could be forged and if it would fall under the Chiang Mai Initiative, a multilateral currency swap arrangement launched in May 2000 that also includes ten Southeast Asian nations.

The report added that more discussion of such cooperation could unfold on the sidelines of the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits.