Third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting continues in Dalian, prepares for Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen

The Third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) continued Friday in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, with participants highlighting early outcomes achieved since the start of the APEC "China Year" and expressing high expectations for the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting scheduled for November in Shenzhen.

As the host of APEC 2026, China will hold the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province from Nov. 18 to 19.

The ongoing SOM3 in Dalian is primarily tasked with reviewing and summarizing the work of the APEC "China Year" and promoting further progress in cooperation across various areas, in preparation for the Leaders' Meeting.

"Three major priorities were outlined -- openness, cooperation and innovation, and we are moving quite successfully. We are looking forward to the summit because it will be a very important one for us. And we hope and we will contribute fully into the outcomes of the summit in order to make it a very practical product for APEC to continue moving ahead in a very good pace," said Russia's APEC Senior Official Marat Berdyev.

"So far we have already finished three officials meetings and together with the senior officials meeting, we have also different committees meeting, and we have made a lot of achievements and lots of programs preparing for the [APEC Economic] Leaders' Meeting later this year. I have very high expectations because we have a very good year of meeting here in China and many committees are making good progress. So we expect that this deliverable will be announced at the APEC Leaders' Meeting," said Ding Guorong, chairman of APEC Economic Committee.

Since the launch of the APEC "China Year", China has hosted three senior officials' meetings and a series of activities under APEC Digital Week. It has also convened ministerial meetings on women and the economy, trade, tourism, forestry and food security.

More than 300 meetings and activities have been held in over 10 Chinese cities, attracting a cumulative total of around 7,000 participants.

The National Yellow River Wetland Nature Reserve in Luoyang City's Mengjin District, central China's Henan Province, welcomed its first batch of overwintering black storks, a national first-class protected wild animal, on Friday.

Footage recorded by local researchers captured multiple black storks wandering through wetlands in groups, strolling leisurely in black, metallic plumage.

The group numbered 21 birds and arrived earlier than in previous years, when they typically reached the area in mid-to-late November.