The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea announced the results of the meeting of APEC leaders that were favorable for Russia

The Russian position on the conflict in Ukraine was included in the draft final communiqué of the countries participating in the APEC summit “in a manner favorable to Russia.” The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, told reporters about this when answering a question from Vedomosti. According to him, the final document as a whole was agreed upon. “I think so,” he said, answering the related question.

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea was the only representative of the APEC member countries who agreed to talk to journalists. The rest of the leaders, passing through the passage from the plenary hall past the press area, did not answer questions. US Vice President Kamala Harris and Chinese President Xi Jin Ping were not on the sidelines.

As Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin previously reported, a number of Western countries participating in APEC tried to promote the inclusion in the final declaration of the APEC forum of language that was generally similar to the rhetoric that they adhered to when preparing a communiqué following the G20 summit, which ended on November 16. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that the Indonesian forum discussed issues of food, energy, healthcare, but “our Western colleagues tried in every possible way to make this [итоговую] declaration of a politicized one and push through wording that would imply condemnation of the actions of the Russian Federation on behalf of the entire G20, i.e. ourselves.” Japan was especially vocal at APEC, said Deputy Minister Pankin.

The APEC summit is taking place in Bangkok on November 18-19. The Russian delegation was led by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov. In addition to him and Pankin, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev, the bank’s chairman of the board VTB Andrey Kostin, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev, businessman Oleg Deripaska. This meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting after a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic. The main topics of the upcoming meeting will be the post-COVID recovery of the global economy and trade, climate vulnerabilities and prospects for interaction between APEC members.

Now APEC includes 21 countries and territories of the Asia-Pacific region, in total 2.8 billion people live in them. In addition to Russia, APEC includes 20 members: Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Canada, China, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Singapore, USA, Thailand, Philippines, Chile, South Korea and Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. These countries are home to 2.8 billion people, the APEC economies account for 60% of world GDP and almost half of international trade.

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