TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Tuesday that he will host a trilateral meeting with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts this weekend in Tokyo, where they are expected to reaffirm their commitment to economic cooperation.

Iwaya also said the three-way gathering scheduled for Saturday will be followed by separate bilateral talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae Yul, as well as a high-level Japan-China economic dialogue.

The trilateral foreign ministerial talks will be the first since a meeting in November 2023 in the South Korean port city of Busan.

"It is important to build future-oriented relations with China and South Korea, our closest neighbors," Iwaya said at a press conference, adding the three governments are not arranging to release any joint outcome document.

Japan currently serves as the rotating chair of the three-way communication framework, having taken over from South Korea after Seoul hosted a trilateral summit in May 2024.

Before the summit, a leader-level gathering among the three Asian nations had not taken place since December 2019, against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and disputes between Japan and South Korea over a longstanding wartime labor issue.