WASHINGTON, February 22. /TASS/. Russian representatives attend meetings under the US presidency within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, US Senior Official for APEC Matt Murray said on Wednesday.

"Russia participated in the informal senior officials meeting that we hosted in Honolulu in December [2022] from December 7 to 9; they elected to participate virtually," Murray said. ‘They did participate in the plenary meeting and in the symposium that we held in Honolulu. Also, right now, in Palm Springs, there are Russian delegates that are participating in the various meetings there," the official noted.

"We will have, I think, an alternate senior official [from Russia - TASS] coming for the senior officials meeting next week. And so we do have Russian participation, both in person and virtually in Palm Springs," he added.

The White House makes decisions to invite specific participants, Murray noted, referring to the APEC Summit to be held in November 2023 in San Francisco, California. "But we do have Russian participation in Palm Springs, we had Russian participation in Honolulu," the Senior Official said. The US wants "to be a good steward of APEC" and wants "to make sure that there were opportunities for all economies to participate," he concluded.