BANGKOK : Bangkok is officials say that people from the US and a few other countries left a meeting of Asia-Pacific trade ministers in Bangkok on Saturday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One diplomat said that the walkout was a way to show that they didn’t like Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and how it hurt the economy in the APEC region.
Two Thai officials and two international diplomats told Reuters that representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia left the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting with the Americans. The Americans were led out by Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and said it wanted to make its neighbor less dangerous and “denazify” it. Ukraine and the West say that President Vladimir Putin started a war of aggression without any reason. They say that this war has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes, and hurt economies all over the world.
Another diplomat said that the five countries that held the protest wanted the group’s final statement, which will be released on Sunday, to have “stronger language on Russia’s war.”
“The meeting won’t be a failure if we can’t come up with a joint statement,” Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told reporters. He also said that despite the walkout, the meeting was “going well.”
Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was speaking at the start of the two-day meeting of the group of 21 economies when the walkout happened.
A Thai official said that the delegations from the five countries that took part in the protest went back to the meeting after Reshetnikov was done talking.