(B)RIC Meets in India

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Indian-Chinese PMs

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India is playing host to the ninth trilateral meeting between India, Russia and China starting Oct 27, at Bangalore. The meeting will discuss ways to expand cooperation in regional and international issues like the global financial crisis, terrorism and UN reforms. The Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will meet his counterparts, Sergei Lavrov of Russia and Yang Jiechi of China, during the talks.

Though the meeting is quite significant in itself given the involvement of the Cabinet Ministers, all eyes will be on the bilateral meeting between the Indian Minister and his Chinese counterpart. The bilateral discussion between the two leaders becomes more important given the recent issues that have cropped in the relation of the two Asian economic gaints. The main issues of contention in recent times have been the the reports of Chinese incursions and strident assertions over Arunachal Pradesh by Beijing as well as issue of seperate visas to Kashmiri residents.

The meeting between the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers will be preceded by talks between the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit at the Thai resort city of Hua Hin, likely on Saturday.

Meanwhile on Oct. 21, (Wednesday) the Chinese Ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, dismissed concerns over comments made by his country’s foreign ministry with regard to Kashmir who on Tuesday was almost echoing the Pakistani stance on Kashmir.

In a press briefing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu called Kashmir an issue left over by history that should be resolved properly through dialogue and consultation between India and Pakistan.

While trying to downplay the statement in light of the upcoming dailogue the Chinse Ambassador said:

China has recently also shown displeasure over the visit of Indian Prime Minister and Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh to which the India has voiced severe discontent.