Posted on 07/21/2006 3:28:02 AM PDT by jome
ST. PETERSBERG: Leaders of China, Russia and India held their maiden trilateral summit yesterday in the former Russian capital to strengthen their strategic ties.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among leaders of six developing countries that attended the outreach session of the three-day Group of Eight (G8) summit at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the meeting, Hu said the three nations should work together for further communication and co-ordination in major international and regional issues and promote the solution of disputes and differences through dialogue.
Before the meeting, Putin said economic issues would top the agenda of the trilateral meeting.
"So far, despite the high level of political interaction, our economic co-operation has not been sufficiently effective," Putin told a news conference summing up the outcome of Sunday's session of the G8 summit attended by leaders from the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Japan, France and Italy, besides Russia.
"Our meeting in this format will focus on the development of economic ties between the three countries."
He said that discussions held in the trilateral meeting would promote mutual trust not only between India, Russia and China individually, but also at regional and global levels.
Earlier, Putin said he would back the expansion of the G8 to include India and China as it would be difficult to imagine how international financial and energy problems could be solved without involving them.
The trilateral summit would confirm the readiness of China, India and Russia to co-operate in such a framework, which is useful to political and economic co-operation in Asia, analysts said.
Beijing and New Delhi accepted Russia's proposal to hold the trilateral summit because it was beneficial to boosting the co-operation among the three countries as well as maintaining multi-polarity, peace, security and development in the world, Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said at a news briefing last week.
Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov first mooted the trilateral relationship between India, China and Russia during a visit to New Delhi in 1998. Since then, scholars from the three nations have been meeting regularly.
Analysts in Beijing said it is the unanimous desire of the three sides to hold such meetings to enhance co-operation in the fields of politics, trade and energy.
Liu Jian, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the 30-minute talks are not a simple club of associates but "have expressed determination to step up efforts to make a joint development in their countries."
He said the all three countries enjoy similar international status and consider a multipolar world the best guarantee of international relations that are based on a multilateral approach.
Secondly, Liu said that the economies of the three nations are highly complementary.
China and India restarted border trade two weeks ago through Tibet's Nathu La Pass, a historic trading route that had been closed for 44 years.
Liu also pointed out that the three nations are geographically near each other, with China adjacent to the other two.
Commenting on the future prospects of the trilateral summit, Liu ruled out the possibility that in the future China, India and Russia would form a new group to compete with the Western countries.
"The three nations are just handling international relations from the point of view of their respective national interests and security for further development," Liu said, emphasizing that China has no intention of forming such an organization.
Source: China Daily
The Bric countries (russia, china, brazil, india) seem to be trying to form a bloc to counter the United States. The same with the European Union (who even as a unified country would be in many ways weaker than the United States). it is naturally though to go after the figurative top dog.
other? The developing countries in the article are China, India, and Russia.
Mexico was one of the countries (he was in a G8 picture on the BBC website).
he being President Vicente Fox.
south americans, mexicans, russians, chinese and indians in an alliance?...that isnt gonna last..lol
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