Russia pleased with APEC declaration, its interests taken into account - deputy PM
LIMA. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Russia's interests were taken into account in the final declaration of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which concluded in Peru on Saturday, Russia Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk told reporters.
"It ended up being quite a large document, and we are pleased with it [the declaration], as a party to the declaration," Overchuk said, noting the Russian delegation's great effort.
The declaration was adopted with a consensus among all leaders of the APEC economies, he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large and Russia's senior official in APEC Marat Berdyyev said on Saturday that "the declaration is fully consensus-based and does not contain artificially politicized scenarios."
Overchuk told reporters earlier during the summit that APEC leaders voiced concerns about increasing protectionism in international trade.
"A great deal of attention was devoted to the fact that economic fragmentation is taking place right now, everyone sees it. Very grave concerns were expressed about the fact that economies are starting to protect against one another, protective measures are being introduced and this, in turn, leads to the disruption of established global value chains," Overchuk said following a meeting of APEC leaders.
The rejection of the global economy and increasing protectionism "affect the efficiency of economies and labor productivity, and lead to the intensification of the divide between rich and poor," he said.
"The discussion to a significant degree revolved around how the advantages provided by globalization can be used to increase people's prosperity," Overchuk said.
Ministerial meetings at the summit discussed optimizing the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the need to restart the dispute resolution mechanism. More and more countries support Russia's position on this issue, Deputy Economic Development Minister Dmitry Volvach told reporters Friday evening.
Ministers discussed a "transition to far more modern and fairer rules of global trade, world trade."
"There are nuances to concluding the formation of the mechanism for ending disputes. Russia consistently calls for this mechanism to be created. I think that more and more countries hear us and agree with us. This was also a subject of discussion yesterday," Volvach said, commenting on the joint meeting of APEC foreign affairs and trade ministers.
Ministers also raised the issue of concluding work on signing an e-commerce agreement within the context of the WTO.
"All of us here are committed to common rules, the foundation for which are the rules in effect in the World Trade Organization. And at the same time we're saying that it is necessary to finish up some isolated adjustments in order to, foremost, meet modern requirements. Obviously, this is e-commerce, an agreement on e-commerce. The number one priority is to get this agreement between WTO member countries signed in the near future," Volvach said.
The ministerial meetings also discussed the elimination of barriers in international trade, including issues concerning logistics and payments. "The results of our meetings, today's and yesterday's, will enable us to provide answers to a number of questions, practical questions, including to our participants in foreign economic activities," Volvach said.
"Everyone is concerned and, let's put it this way, the problems that we, our economies face, foremost the problems that the participants of our economic processes raise with us, they are the same, believe me. Various problems, issues, barriers with both payments and logistics arise for all countries, participants, not just Russia. Sometimes they're objective, sometimes subjective, and they all require their solutions. All this is being discussed, all this is on the agenda. Indeed, let's put it this way, there is a demand for resolution of these issues," Volvach said.
The 2024 APEC Summit was held from November 9 to 16 in Lima, the capital of Peru, which is chairing the organization this year. Overchuk led the Russian delegation, like he did the previous year, when San Francisco hosted the summit.
APEC is a forum of 21 Asia-Pacific economies for cooperation in regional trade and investment liberalization. Its members include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia, and Vietnam.
South Korea will take over the chairmanship of the organization in 2025.
