Russia-China-India Foreign Ministers To Meet in Beijing To Discuss Regional Security

On Feb. 2, the foreign ministers of China, India, and Russia will be meeting in Beijing, days after U.S. President Obama’s three-day (Jan. 25-27) visit to India. In addition to the trilateral talk, bilateral meetings will take place between the three foreign ministers, Wang Yi, Sushma Swaraj, and Sergey Lavrov. The 13th trilateral meeting will coincide with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s first visit to China since she took office, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chun-ying said at a news conference on Jan. 28.

The meeting will be taking place at a time when the Western nations, led by the United States, have created a warlike situation against Russia over Ukraine, and the aforesaid three nations have enhanced cooperation through organizations such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). On the Feb. 2 trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of China, India, and Russia, Hua said:

Commenting on the upcoming meeting, Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), said the coming three-way meeting would focus on exchanging views on regional security and common interests, China Daily reported. Fu pointed out that China, India, and Russia currently cooperate on a range of issues, including industry, trade, agriculture, emergency relief, and healthcare, and are also members of various key organizations such as BRICS—a group of five emerging national economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—and the G20 forum of major economies. He also noted that the SCO decided last year to make India a member of the security group that also includes China and Russia.

“India subscribes to a balanced foreign policy, without swinging totally to the policies of any major country,” Fu said. But China and India can still find areas in which to cooperate further, such as infrastructure and trade. China is India’s top trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $65.5 billion in 2013. The Modi administration is keen to attract foreign direct investment from China to upgrade India’s infrastructure, Fu said, according to China Daily.