BEIJING, Septermber 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is ready to offer support to the member-countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in ensuring food supply security, Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov said in Beijing on Friday at the APEC's third ministerial meeting on food security.
"Our country possesses the world's largest agricultural production potential for ensuring regional and global food security and agrarian development. We make maximum efforts not only to meet our own requirements for food in full, but also help APEC economies," the Russian minister said.
In his speech at a plenary session, Fyodorov mentioned efforts to ensure food security as one of key problems.This acute issue has to a large extent affected the Pacific Rim countries, where more than 60% of the world's starving people live.
The minister's opinion is that an innovative development of agriculture and of its economic potential on the basis of a large-scale investment cooperation and stimulation of trade in food must become one of the main trends of the combined efforts and potentials of the APEC economies.
It is expected that as a result of this meeting, the ministers will adopt a Beijing Declaration reflecting the striving of APEC economies for an enhanced cooperation in the sphere of food supply security.
The APEC Forum was established in November 1989 as an instrument for a peaceful and non-conflict resolution of economic, social, environmental, and other problems of the Pacific Rim countries. All activities of this association are being built on the basis of consensus.
Along with Russia, APEC includes Australia, Canada, China, Malaysia, the United States, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and a number of other countries.