🎙️ Remarks by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia at the 37th APEC Ministerial Meeting, Session 1: «Building an Asia-Pacific Community», 3 November 2026 "Mr. Chairman, Colleagues, Throughout its history APEC’s core mission has been to strengthen multifaceted economic ties aiming at building a prosperous Asia-Pacific community. Today, this task is all the more relevant. 🌏 The Asia-Pacific is home to the leaders of global growth and has unique economic potential, accounting for 40% of the world's population, 50% of global trade and 60% of the world's GDP. Last year, APEC developing economies attracted 40% of the global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), i.e. over USD 640 billion. 📈 Our region has a strong capacity for steady development, with a 4.8% growth forecast for 2026. 🤝 We welcome APEC's current priorities and core issues highlighted by the Chinese Chairmanship. Focusing on openness, innovation, and connectivity allows to jointly find ways to overcome major challenges to regional cooperation. Key hurdles include escalating protectionism, politicization of investments and technologies, disruption of existing supply chains, and threats to food and energy security. ❗ These destructive trends are driven by the unwillingness of certain economies to acknowledge the shift in the global balance of power. 👉 Russia is guided by the long-term goal of implementing the initiative of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to build a Greater Eurasian Partnership that will be open to all. We are scaling up regional cooperation in trade, logistics, digitalization, integration, tourism and creative economy. China 🇨🇳 remains our key economic partner. Our mutual trade has stayed well above the USD 200 billion benchmark for several years running and increased in 2026 by more than 30%. 👉 Trade with ASEAN has grown by 58 per cent with Russia's exports rising by 44 per cent over ten years. Shipments have increased by 85% in energy, by 36% in fertilizers, and by 50 times in agricultural products. ❗ With other routes currently blocked, traffic arteries running through Russia are becoming the shortest, safest and most cost-efficient corridor from Asia to Europe. APEC economies are scaling up cargo shipments via the #NorthernSeaRoute. Advanced edge-cutting technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), open new window for cooperation. Forecasts indicate that within 10 years, AI will add up to 7% to the global GDP. To benefit from its use, we need to minimize risks and develop common approaches to regulation relying on relevant UN mechanisms, with due account for domestic norms and ethics as well as respect for sovereignty." <...> Read in full: https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/2159644/?lang=en