Russia says US abusing Apec host status by not issuing visas to its ministries

WASHINGTON – The US is fragrantly violating its Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) host country obligations, particularly by failing to issue visas to several Russian ministries and departments, Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said.

“In the context of cooperation through Apec, the picture is extremely negative. We note the absolute unacceptability of Washington’s actions as the current chairman of this authoritative multilateral platform as part of the third series of events held in Seattle by the senior officials of the forum,” Antonov said yesterday, reported Sputnik.

“In addition to politicising discussions by bringing non-core topics into the agenda, the US is again grossly abusing host status. Russian participation is discriminated against. Entry visas were not issued to representatives of several ministries and departments at once.”

In addition, Antonov said there is a growing number of cases of Russia being refused connections to key meetings via video link. – Bernama, August 15, 2023