photo: vusopedia.ru
Representatives of the United States, Japan and three other countries left the meeting of trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Bangkok during a speech by the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Reshetnikov. This is reported by TASS.
This information was confirmed to journalists on Saturday by the official representative of the Thai Foreign Ministry, Thani Sangrat.
“I can confirm that this is true,” he answered the corresponding question.
Earlier, the incident was reported by the Kyodo news agency, citing government sources. As the agency noted, representatives of five countries left the meeting in protest against Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
The APEC Ministerial Meeting opened on Saturday. Maxim Reshetnikov takes part in it in person.
APEC includes 19 countries and two territories. 12 countries are the founders of the union: Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, USA, and Japan. The participants are Russia, China, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Vietnam. In 1991, two Chinese territories joined APEC — Taiwan and Hong Kong.
A meeting of the leaders of the APEC member countries is scheduled for November 18-19.