The Hindu : Front Page : Trilateral meet next month

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 21, 2007
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Trilateral meet next month

Amit Baruah

India, Russia, China discussions will be substantive now

Cautious approach, without upsetting U.S. Trilateral cooperation adds new dimension to India's foreign policy

NEW DELHI: The second, stand-alone meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India, Russia and China — Pranab Mukherjee, Sergei Lavrov and Li Zhaoxing — will take place here on February 14, official sources told The Hindu on Saturday.

The trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers, closely watched for outcomes by other Asia-Pacific nations, will be preceded by discussions between Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Li on February 13.

According to the sources, the trilateral session promises to be more substantive than previous meetings. India, Russia and China have adopted a cautious approach to these meetings, taking care not to upset the United States, with which they want to maintain good relations.

The first-ever "summit level" meeting in the trilateral framework took place in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in July 2006, on the sidelines of the G-8 summit.

The St. Petersburg summit took the lead from the joint statement released by their Foreign Ministers at the first, trilateral standalone meeting in Vladivostok in June 2005.

Emphasising that India, China and Russia shared a "common approach" to key global developments in the 21st century, the Foreign Ministers favoured democratisation of global relations.

They sought a "just world order" based on the "observance of international law, equity, mutual respect, cooperation and progress towards multipolarity".

Opposing terrorism in all forms and manifestations, they called for coordinated action against drug trafficking and other trans-national crimes. The Foreign Ministers also identified cooperation in transport, agriculture, energy and high technology.

The trilateral cooperation offers India the option of adding a new dimension to its foreign policy when the rest of the world is watching the growing warmth in New Delhi- Washington relations.

The trilateral meeting will take place soon after the January 25-26 visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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