After a day and a half of talks in Bangkok, the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum agreed on a joint statement criticizing the conflict and global economic upheaval sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it was causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy,” the statement said.
This final statement was endorsed by all members, including Russia and China, which refrained from publicly criticizing Moscow for the invasion.
“There were other points of view and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions,” the statement said, which uses verbatim the same wording as that of the G20 published earlier in the week at the end of a summit in Indonesia.
The APEC statement laments the impact of the Ukrainian conflict on economic growth, inflation, supply chains, and energy and food security.
The United States and its allies used the G20 summit to broaden the coalition against the Russian invasion.
Facing difficulties on the ground in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to attend the G20 and APEC summits, sending his foreign minister to Bali and a deputy prime minister to Bangkok.
Moscow launched a salvo of missiles into Ukraine this week after losing the key southern city of Kherson in one of the biggest setbacks for Russian forces since their invasion in February.
As a result of this offensive, millions of Ukrainians are suffering power shortages as winter sets in and temperatures drop.
