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No rivalry among APEC states creating regional blocs, free trade zones — Russian official

Valery Sorokin stressed that at the APEC summit in Beijing the sides have agreed to make every effort to “avoid fragmenting cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region”

BEIJING, November 10. /TASS/. The countries of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are not expected to compete among each other by establishing regional blocs and free trade zones, a Russian senior official for the forum, Valery Sorokin, said on Monday.

Many analysts see negotiations on setting up the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus Six group as China’s counterweight to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional free-trade agreement, pushed by Washington.

“TPP and RCEP will be developing in parallel, in no case rivaling with each other,” Sorokin said. “They will prove their prospects and APEC countries will analyze them to achieve a single free trade zone in prospect,” he added.

“We are not going to abandon something, we are set to unite efforts,” Sorokin stressed. “We do not rivalry, we want all good things to be shown and prove their effectiveness and APEC will take the best of it,” he added.

The official stressed that at the APEC summit in Beijing the sides have agreed to make every effort to “avoid fragmenting cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region,” adding that all the free trade mechanisms should be “transparent, open and inclusive.