SAN FRANCISCO /California/, November 15. /TASS/. The summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will open in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday.

High on its agenda are matters of trade, digital assets, financial stability and innovations.

The forum will be held against the backdrop of protests, whose participants are poised to disrupt the event’s work.

A number of foreign delegations will start arriving in San Francisco on November 16 and 17.

The Russian delegation will be led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk.

Chinese President Xi Jinping confirmed his participation earlier. He is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the forum on November 15.

Other top-level participants of the event are Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, Chilean President Gabriel Boric, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other leaders.

Russia’s partipication

Matt Murray, the State Department official in charge of APEC, earlier told AFP that Overchuk, who heads the Russian delegation, will "have the opportunity to participate fully in the week's events,"

"We've been consistently saying all year long that we wanted to be good hosts of APEC," Murray said.

"But we were going to do so within the laws and regulations of the United States. And Russia's participation, obviously, has been shaped by that, because of the sanctions," the US official added.

Authorities brace for protests

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, answering to a question from TASS, that the city authorities expect large-scale protests in the city during the summit. She warned protestors that violence and property damage will not be tolerated.

A large protest against the APEC forum and in support of Palestine was held in the central part of the city on Sunday. More than a thousand people took part in a rally organized by the No to APEC Coalition. It is an umbrella group for more than a hundred of public organizations, including anti-war, environmental, leftist, pro-Palestinian groups and trade unions.

A new rally is scheduled for November 15. Protestors are poised to prevent delegates from reaching the event’s venue, Moscone Center.

Debates about final statement

According to Murray, the United States is taking measures to reach consensus on the event’s final statement. In his words, there has been "a lot of friction over the last couple of years over statements, primarily due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict."

"But last year Thailand hosted APEC and was able to announce a consensus leaders’ declaration, and we certainly want to try to do the same thing this year," Murray said.

About the organization

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) comprises 19 countries and 2 territories. These include 12 founding economies: Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. Other members are China (joined in 1991), Mexico and Papua New Guinea (1993), Chile (1994), Russia, Vietnam and Peru (1998). Two Chinese territories, Hong Kong and Taiwan, joined APEC in 1991.

During the summit in San Francisco, Peru will assume the organization’s rotating presidency.