The foreign ministers of China, India and Russia will meet today
in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin to explore ways to
enhance pragmatic trilateral cooperation.
They will exchange views on major international and regional
issues and boost substantive economic cooperation in the various
fields including agriculture, disaster relief and information
technology.
The one-day discussion is expected to be wrapped up with a joint
communiqué, as was the case in the last two talks.
This is the third stand-alone meeting among the three foreign
ministers, who met earlier in New Delhi in February this year and
in the Russian city Vladivostok in June 2005.
The three foreign ministers first met on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2002.
Since then, they have met six times.
The top leaders of China, India, and Russia met for the first
time in July 2006 in St Petersburg on the sidelines of G8
summit.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said earlier that the
trilateral consultation is open and transparent and not aimed at
forming an alliance to counter Western powers.
Sun Shihai, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences said coordination among the three countries "promoted
democracy in the international relationship."
He noted that as the three countries are highly economic
complementary to each other, down-to-earth cooperation is in the
interests of all sides.
Sun cited the example of energy cooperation, saying both China
and India would be willing to do business with oil-rich Russia
while the latter would also benefit from the two economic growth
engines of Asia.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will hold separate talks with his
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov today and Indian External Affairs
Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow.
(China Daily October 24, 2007)
