India-Russia-China trilateral meet to touch upon issues of mutual concern

New Delhi, Oct 18(ANI): Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has said that issues of regional importance, mutual concern and mutual interest will be discussed during the forthcoming trilateral meet between India, Russia and China meeting in Bangalore.

She added that the agenda of the trilateral meeting would include discussion of the regional situation and ways of strengthening the dialogue between the three countries, which are major powers in the region.

"The structure that the three countries have devised enables us to discuss issues of regional importance and of course, our External Affairs Minister will be meeting his Chinese counterpart during this meeting," Nirupama Rao told public broadcaster All India Radio in a recent interview.

"This meeting will afford us the opportunity to touch upon various issues of mutual concern and mutual interest in the bilateral relationship, but you must understand that the larger context of this meeting is trilateral," she added.

Rao further said that there would also be bilateral meetings on the sidelines, where the Indian side would try to have a frank and open discussion with the Chinese counterparts in order to remove misunderstandings between the two countries.

Rising tensions were evident recently when China tried to block an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to Arunachal Pradesh and objected to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh. (ANI)