All news

Russian official reproaches US for skipping Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum meeting

The official said such behavior can be explained by Washington’s reluctance to regard other delegations’ opinion
Head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee Konstantin Kosachev ITAR-TASS/Denis Vyshinskiy
Head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee Konstantin Kosachev
© ITAR-TASS/Denis Vyshinskiy

QUITO, January 12. /TASS/. Senior Russian official Konstantin Kosachev said on Monday the United States has not attended the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) in Ecuador's capital city of Quito as Washington pays no regard to other countries’ opinion.

“Typically, the United States of America, which pretends to play the role of a world leader, has once again ignored the APPF,” said Kosachev, who chairs Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) foreign affairs committee.

The US has the same stance towards other important international venues, namely the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which unites national parliaments of 163 countries, “where Americans are absent as usual.”

The official said such behavior can be explained by Washington’s reluctance to regard other delegations’ opinion. “They [Americans] are not used to this or do not believe that this format is fruitful,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kosachev expressed confidence that parliamentary forums are a good venue where participants “do not just meet but also understand each other, and this means establishing close cooperation.”

“We propose a dialogue and a joint search for solutions which are not known in advance, and are convinced that in many issues politics should not hamper this effort,” he said.

The constituent session of APPF took place in Tokyo, Japan, in January 1993. The organization currently unites 27 countries, including Russia. The 21st APPF Annual Meeting was held in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, in January 2013.