The Second APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) for 2026 was held in Shanghai from May 18 to 19, 2026. Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu attended and addressed the opening session.

Ma Zhaoxu noted that President Xi Jinping pointed out that China will follow the trend of the times, listen to the call of APEC members, and work together to build an Asia-Pacific community, so as to further boost peace and development in the Asia-Pacific and the wider world. This statement has pointed out the direction of cooperation during the APEC “China Year.” China will focus on this year’s APEC theme “Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together.” By envisioning a road map toward an Asia-Pacific community in the APEC Shenzhen Leaders’ Declaration, China will highlight the four pillars of trade, connectivity, innovation and development, and make active preparations for the outcomes of the Leaders’ Meeting.

Participating parties spoke highly of the progress made in APEC cooperation across various fields since the beginning of the year, commended China for hosting the APEC meetings, and expressed readiness to jointly work for fruitful outcomes in APEC “China Year.”

Prior to this SOM, APEC committees and working groups held nearly 40 meetings from May 11 to 17, covering areas including trade and investment, economic and technical cooperation, women, telecommunications, and food security. More than 1,000 representatives from member economies of APEC, the APEC Secretariat and APEC observers attended the meetings.