INDIA CHINA RUSSIA MEET TO COUNTER US POWER

Li Zhaoxing, Pranab Mukherjee and Sergei Lavrov gesturing before their economic talks in New Delhi on Wednesday.


From The Times
February 15, 2007
Giants meet to counter US power
Jeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

...(said) not an alliance against the United States. It was, “on the contrary, intended to promote international harmony and understanding”, a joint communiqué stated.

The subtext, however, was clear: how to use their growing economic and political muscle to prevent Washington from tackling such issues alone.


...said Vinod C. Khanna, of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi.

• “In the long term, they feel that the whole structure of international relations has to shift in their direction,”

• “What has happened is that quite independently they’ve reacted very similarly to recent international events.”

Mr Mukherjee said:

• “We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs.

• We also agreed on the importance of the UN.”

• ...there has been a convergence of interests as each struggles to make the transition from a command economy to free markets.

• Since 2003 they have found further common ground in opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq.

One area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist conflicts

• in Chechnya,

• the northeast of India and

• the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

• India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and

• Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets.

• common ground is opposition to US military intervention in Iran.

• The three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency.