RIC meeting in Bangalore; hope for future

Bangalore hosted trilateral meeting of RIC (Russia, India, and China) foreign ministers on Tuesday, the 27^th November. This is the first important meeting of international importance after SAARC, which was held in 1986, some 23 years ago. S.M.Krishna, Yang Jeichi and Sergei Lavrov, foreign ministers of India, China and Russia respectively, held discussions on wide ranging issues including international terrorism, climate change, international financial order, Afghanistan, trade and commerce and IMF and World Bank etc.

          This meeting had assumed immense significance in view of recent standoff between India and China on Arunachal Pradesh.  PM Dr. Man Mohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh was opposed by China. Dr Singh met Wen Jiabao, premier of China in Thailand and tried to diffuse the tension. It has been conveyed to the Chinese that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and Chinese stand on this issue is not acceptable to it. On Dalai Lama Indian premiere has categorically stated that he is an honored guest of India.      

The declaration singed after this meeting, demanded among other things, reforms in IMF and World Bank. The three leaders said that India, China and Russia are major players in world economy and therefore should be given at least 5% voting rights in these international financial institutions. Commending the role of international community in fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, the leaders expressed hope that the effort would continue till the normalcy is restored.

Decision was also taken that next meeting of RIC would be held in China. On issues like climatic change, they resolved to take concerted effort and stand on Copenhagen. It is worth mentioning that India and China have signed a bilateral agreement on climate change and have resolved to work together in the field of climate change. These three nations put together constitute 20 % land mass and 39 % world population, and in this backdrop this meeting and decisions taken therein assume great significance.  

They also discussed issues related to trade and commerce and reiterated that more steps would be taken to ensure that trade volume between these countries increases.

If RIC work together in international forums like G-20, WTO and SCO etc can yield very good results. Although issues of Arunachal and Dalai Lama were also raised by Chinese counterpart, but SM Krishna downplayed it intelligently and this meeting remained confined to cooperation rather than confrontation.