APEC Leaders To Make Anti-terrorism Declaration At Shanghai Forum

APEC leaders to gather at the Shanghai forum will make a declaration on the fight against terrorism, a RIA Novosti correspondent has quoted Sergei Vasilyev, a senior Russian official for APEC issues, as telling the press on Friday. According to him, the document is being drafted now, it has not been yet worked out in full. Vasilyev indicated that 8 variants of the document had already been considered. Explaining the difficulties in drafting the declaration, he said the document should both stipulate specific anti-terrorism measures and express the general condemnation of terrorism. Vasilyev added that formally the APEC was an economic forum. Still, taking into account the events in the USA, all APEC member-countries have spoken for the discussion of the general effort against international terrorism. Vasilyev stressed that this subject had been put on the agenda of an APEC summit for the first time. The final variant of the leaders' declaration on the fight against terrorism will be ready after their October 20th-21st meeting. Vasilyev says the leaders of APEC member-countries may wish to adopt changes to the draft declaration. Vasilyev added that the draft had been discussed at a sitting of senior executives representing APEC countries. The document is expected to contain 2 or 3 pages. On the initiative of the Russian side, an article dealing with the threat of biological terrorism has been added to the draft declaration. According to Vasilyev, some participants in the sitting of executives, including those from Muslim countries, voiced the need to avoid victims among civilian population while staging military operations. The participants in the meeting, Vasilyev noted, unanimously stated that it was necessary to resort to all means in combating terrorism.