China has announced plans to hold bilateral defense ministers' meetings with South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.

China’s official Xinhua News said that Beijing will hold bilateral meetings with the defense ministers of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan on the sidelines of the inaugural ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus, which opens Monday in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie will be the first since the sinking of South Korea’s “Cheonan” naval vessel in March. The two officials will discuss defense affairs and ways to strengthen relations between their countries.

The U.S. and China will discuss personnel exchanges and ways to devise an effective dialogue framework during the meeting between their defense chiefs.

Japan and China will hold a ministerial-level meeting for the first time since the two countries halted last month exchanges of high-ranking government officials amid a territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea called “Diaoyu” in Chinese and “Senkaku” in Japanese.