Russia invited to APEC summit in Mexico

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message to his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox Quesada to express his gratitude for the invitation to take part in the 10th summit of the leaders of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation member-states in Los Cabos on October 26th-27th, 2002, the Kremlin press service said.

The presidential message reads that "Russia assigns priority to APEC activities. This is a unique mechanism for dialogue and coordination of member-states' positions on key economic, trade and investment issues and the development of economic and technical cooperation in the Asian-Pacific region. I am convinced that the Forum's work creates conditions for progressive and non-conflict development of the region and for the solution of its economic, social, ecological and other problems. We are going to boost Russia's participation in APEC working bodies and programmes and to contribute to the economic integration into the Asian-Pacific region.

"We believe that the APEC summit in Los Cabos will promote the development of economic relations between Russia and Latin American members of the Forum, first of all, with Mexico."