South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold their first meeting on development issues on Friday, as the three nations seek to expand trilateral cooperation on the international stage, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The inaugural session will take place in Washington with delegations from each country's foreign ministries in attendance, the South Korean ministry said in a press release.

"The three countries, in the era of sustainable development, plan to share their policies and experiences in terms of development cooperation, discuss new plans for development cooperation aimed at enabling sustainable development, and seek possible areas of trilateral cooperation, including joint projects and volunteer exchanges," the ministry said.

The talks will be led by Lee Yong-soo, director-general of the South Korean ministry's development cooperation bureau; Kurt Tong, principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs; and Keizo Takewaka, deputy director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's International Cooperation Bureau. (Yonhap)