The 25th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is happily underway, despite State Department threats to governments and businesses around the world to not attend. “We urge governments and companies to join our boycott and send a clear message that there is no `business as usual’ while Russian forces brutalize Ukraine,” State’s spokesman Ned Price tweeted June 11, a diplomatic version of nastier threats conveyed privately.
U.S. and European diplomatic and business attendance was way down from previous years, but as the Roscongress Foundation which organizes the forum told the Wall Street Journal, “life goes on.” India, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Turkey, Iran, and Venezuela are among the larger developing nations represented at a high level; China is also participating. But not only developing nations: TASS reports that Robert Agee, President & CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, was present, telling the Forum today that “about 85% of our [American] companies have decided to stay in Russia. Only 11% have left the country, and another 4% are still thinking.”
Some details: India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers was to speak today on the Food Security panel, along with the Ambassadors of Brazil and Senegal to Russia; the President of the Indian Business Alliance (IBA) spoke on the BRICS Panel.
The Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Cuba’s Prime Minister, UAE’s Minister of Foreign Trade, the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries, Venezuela’s Vice President, and a large delegation from Myanmar are participating.
