Russia, India, China trilateral meet ‘productive’

Bangalore: The ninth trilateral meeting between Russia, India and China (RIC) ended today with a declaration that all three countries would closely cooperate in the fight against terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to provide stability to the region.

The three countries also decided to take forward mutual relations in various areas including health, agriculture and disaster mitigation besides cooperating closely on climate change and reducing the impact of global recession.

External affairs minister SM Krishna, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese foreign minister Yang Jei Chi met for two hours to review the progress made in the previous eight rounds of trilateral dialogue.

The RIC (Russia-India-China) grouping also discussed the Af-Pak problem, particularly in the context of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Emerging from the meeting, the ministers told reporters that their discussions were "productive" and that they had identified new areas of cooperation.

"We shared views on various developments and have found that we have common approaches," Krishna said. He also said all three countries were of the view that cooperation between the three countries in fight against terrorism and trans-national crimes will provide stability to the region.