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Russia, US contact at APEC summit only on final statement — senior diplomat

"A separate Russian-American bilateral agenda is not being discussed," Alexander Pankin said

SAN FRANCISCO /California/, November 16. /TASS/. Communication between the United States and Russia on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) platform in San Francisco involves only negotiators working on the text of a joint statement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.

"There have been no bilateral contacts with the US delegation. Contact involves only negotiators who are working on the text of a joint statement," he said. "They are in contact with the Americans and with other delegations, this is a common, normal, multilateral practice," the senior diplomat explained.

"A separate Russian-American bilateral agenda is not being discussed. Nor any other agenda within the framework of Russian-American relations," Pankin said.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing that the US had signaled to Russia its readiness for informal dialogue at the APEC summit in San Francisco.

"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. "Against this backdrop, even the US started to signal its readiness to engage in a pragmatic informal dialogue with us, albeit behind the scenes," the diplomat said.

The APEC summit in San Francisco takes place on November 15-17.

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