MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. The US has signaled to Russia its readiness to hold informal talks at the APEC summit in San Francisco, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"The beginning of the Leaders' Week has shown that most of our friendly partners, primarily from Southeast Asian and Latin American economies, hold views that are similar to ours, seeking to depoliticize APEC processes and focus on substantive discussions," she said at a news conference. "Against this backdrop, even the US started to signal its readiness to engage in a pragmatic informal dialog with us, albeit behind the scenes. I can't say anything, there have been such approaches. Nevertheless, Washington's policy of fruitless verbal altercations still prevails. This is what you see on your screens."

"Of course, this is a strange approach, when in public the US takes this aggressive stance, essentially obstructing our normal work, and then tries to discuss something behind the scenes. This, of course, hinders the constructive work of all delegations, because in general it blurs the lines within APEC that have been formed over the past years," she went on to say.

According to the diplomat, Russia assumes that "the final result of the US watch will depend on the host party itself, its readiness for reasonable compromises."

Zakharova also noted that Russia is busy working out new promising initiatives on the APEC platform with the next holder of the group’s presidency, Peru. The APEC summit is taking place in San Francisco from November 15-17.