Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov Flies To Shanghai Tuesday To Participate In APEC Ministers Meeting

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov flies to Shanghai Tuesday to participate in the 13th annual meeting of APEC /Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation/ foreign ministers on October 17-18. The foreign ministers' meeting will be the main stage of preparations for the APEC summit of the heads of state and government to be held in Shanghai on October 20-21. Vital issues of trade and investments promotion, building up human potential, realization of economic and technical cooperation projects are high on the agenda of the meeting. The participants in the meeting are also expected to discuss issues of countering international terrorism following the recent terrorist attacks in the USA. Moscow expects practical decisions on imposing efficient control over financial flows feeding extremism in all its manifestations to be taken in the course of the Shanghai meetings, Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti. Besides, Moscow expects the forum to take measures on preventing dangerous destabilization of international financial and economic situation in case of large-scale terrorist attacks. The participants in the meeting are to make a statement on the problem of terrorism, the diplomatic sources in Moscow said. According to the sources, APEC as an economic organization will focus on the economic component of the effort to counter terrorism, specifically on cutting off financial backing to terrorists. Russian Foreign Minister is to hold conversations with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and other APEC foreign ministers in Shanghai.