Address by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Pankin at the APEC Ministerial Meeting. Session 2: "Sustainable Growth for a Resilient Development", Lima, 14 November 2024
Distinguished Chair and colleagues,
The APEC region is strengthening its position as an engine of growth with the positive GDP dynamics of 3.5%. However, the forecasts are not that optimistic. Rampant illegitimate restrictions imposed under various pretexts, ranging from imaginary security threats to pseudo climate concerns, are taking their toll.
These trends reflect the challenging realities of the emerging multipolar world order that is apparently not to everyone's liking. The Global South and East have set on a path of genuine independence, which implies that some cannot achieve progress at the expense of others. A number of high-profile economies in the Asia-Pacific, accustomed to dominating continue with their neocolonial practices and still live in the outdated paradigm regarding the balance of powers and "raw-material appendixes".
The BRICS Summit in Kazan has demonstrated the desire of the World Majority to establish a just world order, carry out the reform of international institutions, and build equitable economic ties. An impressive set of agreements on trade, investment, artificial intelligence, energy and climate as well as logistics was concluded. Indonesia, APEC member state, has become a BRICS partner country.
The share of the Asia-Pacific economies in Russia's foreign trade has already reached 70%. Nearly 90% of payments are carried out in national currencies.
Energy security is one of the pillars of modern development. Russia ensures uninterrupted energy supplies to the APEC region. We strongly believe that transitions to low-carbon energy sources must be fair and take into account domestic priorities and technological capabilities. Environmental and climate concerns must not be turned into a tool of unfair competition.
Russia attaches great importance to the issues of climate change. We have set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. In the spirit of SDG-7, our energy mix is based on environmentally friendly resources such as natural gas, nuclear and hydro power, and hydrogen. We have approved the taxonomy of sustainable development and launched the registry of carbon units.
Our economy’s business community is actively engaged in the implementation of this agenda. The ESG registry of Russian companies is regularly published, and the National ESG-Alliance was created.
Chair,
Food security is a pressing issue on the global agenda with 733 million people facing hunger. Yet, this shocking situation is not due to agricultural shortages. The bottleneck is the lack of affordable access to agricultural products as a result of the West-inspired artificial obstacles to supply logistics and abuse of cross-border payment mechanisms. We, on our part, remain a responsible good-faith supplier. In 2023, Russia's agricultural exports to the Asia-Pacific region alone increased by 17%, exceeding 22 billion US dollars.
In this context, establishing a BRICS grain exchange can be considered as a positive development which aims to set fair and predictable prices and protect markets. Experts estimate that this mechanism will help bring together up to 44% (1.24 billion tons a year) of the global grain supply on one trading platform.
We support the Principles for Preventing and Reducing Food Loss and Waste in the Asia-Pacific Region. We are building up efforts to increase the sustainability of aquatic biological resources. Russia has proposed to establish an APEC virtual working group on port state measures in our efforts to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. We actively engage with the interested economies on this track. We are looking forward to productive discussions during the Ocean-Related Ministerial Meeting in April-May 2025 in Busan.
The regional dynamics will depend, to a large extent, on the rates of digitalization and the development of modern infrastructure.
We actively work to strengthen our technological sovereignty, establish digital platforms powered by Russian software in all sectors of agriculture by 2030. The Russian IT-sector grows on average by 10% annually. Our companies are front runners in such advanced sectors as ICT security, AI, e-commerce, search engines, big data, self-driving vehicles. Moscow is in the top ten in the UN e-services rating.
We are increasing transit capacities through the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainline Railways, North-South and East-West Transport Corridors, the Northern Sea Route. We continue moving towards the Greater Eurasian Partnership as a wide integration framework with the participation of all Eurasian economies.
Russia stands for depoliticized cooperation in APEC. We play stabilizing role in world energy and fertilizers markets – as opposite to those who pump hundreds of billions of US dollars for military support of Nazi regime in Kiev to fuel the war instead of directing them to developing countries in dire need.
In conclusion, we would like to thank the Peruvian Presidency for its significant contribution to the development of the forum. We are ready to continue our constructive collaboration with the Republic of Korea as APEC 2025 Chair, consistently working towards the full implementation of APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040.
Thank you.