Russia confirms Putin to be absent from Apec Summit
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the Apec Summit next week and will instead be represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov, the Kremlin said.
The Russian news agency TASS on Friday quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Belousov will lead the Russian delegation to the summit.
The leaders of 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) are scheduled to convene in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The Thai Foreign Ministry received an intimation of Putin’s absence from the Russian Embassy on Thursday.
Putin had previously expressed his intention to join the Bangkok summit to express his views on economic cooperation, though the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war appears to be his priority now, sources say.
So far, 14 government leaders have confirmed their attendance. They are Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, Peru’s President Pedro Castillo, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape.
Apec 2022 is one of the three leader meetings scheduled to be held in Southeast Asia this month. The first is the Asean Summits and related meetings being held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh from November 10-13, followed by the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit in Bali, Indonesia on November 15-16 and the Apec Summit in Bangkok on November 18-19.
Indonesia has confirmed that Putin will not attend the G-20 meeting next Tuesday in Bali. Attending the meeting on Putin’s behalf will be Sergey Lavrov, though the president may attend the meeting online, media reports indicate.
