APEC Will Become More Important for Russia Amid Growing Economic Ties With Asia, Envoy Says
08:07 17.11.2023 (Updated: 08:08 17.11.2023)
© AP Photo / Eric Risberg
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SAN FRANCISCO (Sputnik) - APEC is one of the premier trade and economic forums in the Asia-Pacific region. This year's APEC summit in San Francisco is taking place from November 11-17.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will become more important for Russia amid the expanding ties with Asia and Latin America, Russia’s senior representative at the APEC summit Amb. Marat Berdyev told Sputnik.
Berdyev noted that Russia had joined APEC in 1998 and since then has been actively involved in all its thematic processes.
"We perceive this forum as a core mechanism for deepening economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, the most developing region, one of the key elements of the strengthening multipolar world order," Berdyev said. "At the same time, the importance of APEC for us will only increase in view of the fact that Russia continues to expand its broad front of economic interaction with Asian economies and Latin America."
Berdyev pointed out that the trade volume between Russia and the APEC economies is constantly growing and had reached $278.3 billion at the end of 2022. Over the past several months, trade has increased by about 12%, he added.
"We proceed from the fact that our efforts in this area require an integrated approach, where the multilateral component will play an important role, especially where the result will require group interaction: creating cross-border transport corridors; energy infrastructure; establishing a common framework for digital transformation; promoting of a sustainable strategy development and response to climate challenges," Berdyev said.
Russia also intends to actively promote in APEC the initiative of its president on building a greater Eurasian partnership, Berdyev added.
Apart from that, he has also noted that the matters of protectionist measures and prospects of dedollarization continue to be in focus of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco.
"As for non-market protectionist measures and the prospects for de-dollarization of the world economy, then, of course, these topics concern our colleagues in APEC," Berdyev said. "They fit entirely within the context of the urgently felt need to prevent the collapse of the world economic system - what is often called 'fragmentation' - which threatens to result in colossal costs for the prosperity of our peoples."
More and more members of the forum are paying attention to the political motivation of the protectionist tools that the West is waving as an “economic cudgel,” he added. The so-called sanctions are severely damaging the prospects for global economic growth, fueling poverty and hunger, provoking energy shortages and, most importantly, a long-term surge in inflation, Berdyev said.
"The United States, which is rapidly losing its former dominance, is simply addicted to zero-sum games today," he said. "There are fewer and fewer people willing to echo the Americans in their anti-Russian attacks, and such voices are usually heard under pressure."
Berdyev added that Russia is preparing a number of specific applied projects through the Russian Central Bank to fulfill the strategic goal of the forum - building an attractive, fair and diversified trade and investment sphere.
He has also suggested that the collapse of the US debt is a matter of time and the consequences could overshadow the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
He has also suggested that the collapse of the US debt is a matter of time and the consequences could overshadow the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
Berdyev emphasized that there is a need to transform the international payment system.
"The dollar is consistently losing its leading position in the world, primarily for objective reasons. You just have to look at the size of the American national debt, which I think is only a matter of time before it collapses like a mudslide," Berdyev said. "The scale of this crisis could seriously eclipse the financial collapse in the United States in 2007-2008."
The US debt may reach 137.5% of GDP in five years, a figure more than 14% greater than the debt level in 2023, the International Monetary Fund said in its Fiscal Monitor report in October.
