US Foresees Difficulties Finalizing APEC Statement Amid Friction Over Ukraine - Envoy

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - While there are some difficulties regarding finalization of a final APEC statement due to the frictions over the Ukraine issue, the members still aim for a release of a consensus statement at the end of the leaders summit this week in San Francisco, US ambassador Matt Murray told reporters on Monday.

"We're certainly working towards having a strong consensus statement in APEC, for the leaders to be able to release at the end of the week," Murray stated.

"As you pointed out, there's been a lot of friction over the last couple of years with statements primarily due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict," the ambassador claimed.

Murray went on to say that Russia is a member of APEC, while many of the APEC economies have felt the detrimental economic impact of the Ukraine conflict on their economies in the region, particularly on food security, energy security, macroeconomic instability, etc.

"So that has been certainly an issue that's been difficult to manage in APEC," he stressed. "But last year, Thailand, hosted APEC and was able to announce it you know consensus leaders declaration. And you know we certainly want to try to do the same thing this year and are working very hard with all of our like minded partners and economies, economic partners throughout APEC, to try to deliver that kind of result," the ambassador clarified.