The following is excerpted from a 22 August 2012 press release by the World Trade Organization.
Today (22 August 2012), Russia becomes the 156th WTO member. Vanuatu will join the WTO on 24 August as its 157th member. “Once again this year, we welcome two new members in the WTO family. It has been a long journey for both countries and they will undoubtedly strengthen the multilateral trading system”, said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.
This release is available in its entirety at:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres12_e/pr671_e.htm