Opening remarks by Minister of External Affairs, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the media interaction after the India-Russia-China Trilateral Foreign Ministers Meeting

The Sixth India-Russia-China Trilateral Foreign Ministers Meeting took place today in a very frank and cordial atmosphere. It was the second time that the three Foreign Ministers met exclusively for a trilateral meeting after the first one in Vladivostok in June 2005. In July 2006, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, President of the Russian Federation H.E. Mr. Vladimir Putin and President of the People’s Republic of China H.E. Mr. Hu Jintao met in St. Petersburg for the first summit level trilateral meeting. We will issue a Joint Communique which covers the nature of today’s discussions and the shared views of the three countries.

We had very useful exchanges on future contacts and cooperation in the trilateral format. We agreed on the need to strengthen cooperation amongst the three countries. In particular,

(a) India will host a trilateral business meeting with the participation of businessmen from the three countries later this year. The business meeting could consider specific initiatives in areas such as energy, civil aviation, biotechnology, information technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services;

(b) India has proposed that it would host a trilateral seminar on emerging geo-strategic trends with the participation of officials and scholars in 2007; and

(c) We also discussed the formalities of expert-level discussions among the three countries on issues such as energy, bio-technology and public health.

We shared our thoughts on the political, economic and security aspects of the global situation, the present world order and recent developments in various areas of mutual concern. We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. We also agreed on the importance of the UN and that there was a need to make it more effective so that it reflects contemporary global realities. The three countries felt that their interaction would contribute to strengthening peace, security and stability in our region and the world. There was coincidence of views against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and on the need to address financing of terrorism and its linkages with narco-trafficking.

We agreed to continue our interaction in the trilateral format in the future and the next trilateral Foreign Ministers meeting is to be hosted by China.