EAM to attend Trilateral, BRIC meeting in Russia on May 15-16

New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia will meet at Yekaterinburg in Russia on May 15 for a trilateral meeting on issues including global food shortage and political, economic and security concerns.

This will be followed by a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) the next day to discuss international situation, organised crime, counter-terrorism and drug trafficking.

While the trilateral meeting will discuss political and economic situation and trilateral economic cooperation, the BRIC Foreign Ministerial meeting on May 16 will deliberate on issues including UN reforms, regional situation, counter-terrorism and drug trafficking.

The meetings assume significance as they are being held at a time when the issues of food security and global financial trends are dominating the international scene.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently in Abu Dhabi, will travel to Dubai tomorrow.

He is scheduled to visit Russia from May 14-16 for the Trilateral and the BRIC Foreign Minister's meetings on May15 and 16, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said today.

While the trilateral meeting will the fourth such conclave of the three countries, the BRIC discussions will be the first stand-alone meeting of their Foreign Ministers.

Earlier, stand alone trilateral meetings have been held in Harbin (China) on October 24, 2007, New Delhi on February 14, 2007, and Vladivostok (Russia) on June 2, 2005.

The three Foreign Ministers have also met on the sidelines of multilateral meetings in September 2002, September 2003, October 2004 and September 2005.

As part of the trilateral process, India hosted a business conference here on December 15, 2007, and a seminar on the evolution of geo-political strategic trends on March 27-29.

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