India, Russia and China on Monday sought stepped up efforts aimed at tackling terrorism and prosecuting terrorists and their supporters as their Foreign Ministers discussed cooperation in fighting the menace and on issues like energy security, trade and health care.
“There could be no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere,” said a joint statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) grouping here.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and their Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi “emphasised the need for full international cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts, particularly within the framework of the United Nations, to prevent terrorist attacks and to prosecute terrorists and their supporters,” it said, without naming any country.
“In this context, the Ministers urged all UN member states to urgently conclude and adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism,” the statement said.
At the end of the trilateral talks, Mr. Krishna said the meeting broadly reviewed progress made after the three ministers’ last parleys in Bangalore in 2009.
“We reviewed cooperation within various organisations like G-20, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and East Asia Summit,” he said.
“We believe we can benefit immensely from practical cooperation in the fields of disaster management, agriculture, health care and medicine. Experts from our countries stand to gain from the exchanges,” he said.
The joint statement called for cooperation in the fields of energy, high-tech sectors, innovation and modernisation, aerospace, people-to-people and cultural exchanges besides beneficial cooperation in health care and medicine.
The Ministers also “looked forward to the report of the next Expert-Level Meeting on Cooperation in the field of Health care and Medicine to be convened in Russia in the first half of 2011.”
“They also noted that further interaction would include shaping effective mechanisms for combating infectious diseases and for food safety,” the joint statement said.
The three countries also awaited the recommendations of the Trilateral Expert-Level Meeting on Agricultural Cooperation to be held in New Delhi in 2011, it said.
“The Ministers noted with satisfaction the growth in trade and investment relations among the three countries,” the statement said.
“They hoped that the business chambers in their meeting in New Delhi on November 30, preparatory to the 2011 Trilateral Business Forum in Russia, would be able to chart out innovative mechanisms for true, meaningful trilateral business alliances in identified priority sectors,” it said.
They also called for building an open and transparent energy market system and an advanced energy technology, R&D and dissemination system for enhanced technological transfer and financial support to developing countries consistent with existing international non—proliferation obligations and relevant national policy.
“The Ministers agreed to step up cooperation in the field of energy security, taking into account, inter alia, the initiative of President (Dmitry) Medvedev to negotiate an international legal instrument in this area,” the statement said.
On the strategic front, the Ministers stressed the need to “develop an open, transparent, inclusive and balanced security and cooperation architecture in the Asia Pacific region based upon universally agreed principles of international law and giving due consideration to the legitimate interests of all states.”
All three Ministers said they found the meeting to be a useful platform for exchange of views on crucial issues and agreed to hold their meeting in Russia next year.
Mr. Yang said though there are many regional orgnisations, RIC has its own importance as the three countries had huge land mass and large population base with historic cultural background of their own.
“In a broader sense the three are close neighbours to each others. That is why RIC is not only important but (it is) necessary to strengthen it,” Mr. Yang said.
The three Ministers, during the past two days, also held bilateral meetings to discuss issues relating to their respective countries.
