Wuhan - Foreign ministers from China, Russia and India met on Monday to discuss ways to build a more balanced and democratic international order in a multi-polar world.

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The trilateral meeting, also known as RIC, was the tenth of its kind and focused on plans for the coordination of actions by the three countries to develop an open and inclusive security framework in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The three emerging giants share close or similar views on various international and regional issues and the cooperation is solidly grounded," said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, the host of the meeting.

The discussion between Yang, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna on developments in Iran, Afghanistan and the Korean Peninsula brought out their common approach on these issues.

The three ministers reiterated their support to the United Nations' core role in global affairs. Meanwhile, Yang and Lavrov also expressed welcome to India's election to the UN Security Council for the 2011-2012 term, and said they looked forward to deepening cooperation with India within the Council.

They also called for jointly combating terrorism and told all UN member states to urgently conclude and adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

"The ministers emphasized the importance of joint efforts to counter the use of information and communication technologies for terrorist and criminal purposes. They also underscored the importance of joint efforts in countering the financing of terrorism," said the joint statement that released after the half-day meeting.

Besides the strategic issues, RIC also focused on issues relating to disaster relief, agriculture and public health, and deepening communication among academic, industrial and business circles.

According to Lavrov, the three countries also renewed their commitment to further exploring cooperation potential and reinforcement cooperation in energy, hi-tech sectors and innovation.

Analysts viewed the trilateral cooperation as having far-reaching significance.

"The three are all new emerging economies and the current international order is no longer suitable for their rapid development, so they have the desire to adjust it to make it favorable for their own growth," said Sun Shihai, a senior scholar on South Asia studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

But Sun added that disputes within the three countries are inevitable - and likely to be long lasting. "That is the obstacle for their further cooperation and the three countries should increase their mutual trust first," Sun said.

But since Russia has recently joined the East Asia Summit mechanism and the Asia-Europe Meeting forum, whose participants also include China and India, analysts say the three countries now have an opportunity to more closely interact at those venues for further dialogue.

Li Lifan, a researcher at the Institute of Eurasian Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that Asia is getting more and more important in Moscow's development strategy.

"Russia is eyeing the Asia-Pacific markets to export its weapons and the products of heavy industry and aviation industry," Li said.

The next meeting of the RIC foreign ministers is scheduled to be held in Russia later next year.

Yu Yang and Wang Di contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 11/16/2010 page23)