Russia will be invited to attend meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc hosted by the United States next year, a U.S. official said on Monday.
As "good stewards of APEC," the United States will invite Russia, which is a member of the 21-country bloc, Matt Murray, a senior U.S. official for APEC, told a media briefing in Singapore.
At an APEC meeting hosted by Thailand in May, representatives from the United States and some other countries walked out of a meeting in protest of Russia's actions in Ukraine when Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was delivering remarks.
Murray did not say if Putin would attend next year's APEC leaders' meeting in San Francisco.
The Russian leader was represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov at the leaders' meeting hosted by Thailand last month.