BEIJING — China will host a ministerial conference of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from Aug 2 to 3 in Beijing, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on July 4.

It will be the first RCEP ministerial conference held in China, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng said at a news conference.

Meanwhile, the 27th round of RCEP negotiations will be held between July 22 and 31 in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan province.

While continuing to respect and uphold the pivotal role the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plays in RCEP, China will make contribution to forging communication, cooperation and consensus to support the negotiations to be finalized within the year, Gao said.

The 26th round of negotiations were concluded on July 3 in the Australian city of Melbourne, seeing positive progress in various fields.

RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 ASEAN members and the six Asia-Pacific countries with which ASEAN has free trade agreements — Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.