Trilateral Foreign Ministers to discuss Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan

Moscow, Feb 12 (UNI) The second, stand-alone meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, Russia and China will discuss Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea in New Delhi on February 14.

Stressing that the cooperation between the three countries was not something ''virtual,'' the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin today said the Foreign Ministers, including Pranab Mukherjee, Sergei Lavrov and Li Zhaoxing, will also discuss counter-terrorism and anti-drug efforts and the situations in Afghanistan, as well as trilateral cooperation.

''This cooperation is based on the three countries' common approaches to the basic issues of world development in the 21st century, on the urge to strengthen democratic principles, on an understanding of the importance of multilateral efforts to maintain strategic stability at the global and regional levels, and on the recognition of the UN's central role in this process,'' Mr Kamynin said.

He added there was a growing interest in trilateral contacts on a wide range of issues, including political, academic and, in particular, business and economic contacts to give ''substantive economic content'' to the trilateral cooperation between India, Russia and China.

In his speech at the 43rd Munich Security Conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the aggregate GDP of India and China in terms of purchasing power parity was more than the US Gross Domestic Product.

He said the aggregate GDP of Brazil, Russia, India and China exceeded the European Union's aggregate GDP.

''There should be no doubt that the economic potential of new centres of world growth will inevitably be converted into political influence and strengthen multi-polarity,'' Mr Putin noted.

The first summit-level trilateral meeting, took place in St Petersburg, last July, on the sidelines of the G-8 summit.

UNI