(www.irna.ir) вЂ" China's foreign minister has already arrived and Russia's foreign minister will be on his way to meet their Indian counterpart for the first structured meeting of their trilateral forum in New Delhi on February 14.
The agenda on the table will range from Iran, North Korea, Middle East to the volatile situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. So far, the leaders of the three countries had almost always met informally on the sidelines of multilateral events, the Indian English daily Statesman reported here Tuesday.
The last meeting of the foreign ministers had taken place in Vladivostock in June 2006.
In Moscow Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the ministers would be discussing all reigning global issues -- from regional hotspots to counter-terrorism and anti-narcotic efforts, reports Trend.
He told reporters that cooperation between the three countries was not "virtual," but was based on common approaches on basic issues of world development which include strengthening of democratic principles, importance of multilateral efforts and recognition of the central role of the UN.
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeni Primakov in 1998 had first mooted the trilateral forum, but it had initially not been received with much enthusiasm in either New Delhi or Beijing.
More than perhaps other joint interests, the abiding point of similarity of the three nations had been their insistence on a multipolar world, opposing the United States as the sole superpower.
The Russians have been especially vocal about the need to strengthen multipolarity -- the recent railing by Russian President Vladimir Putin against the increasing US unilateral military action at the Munich security conference on Saturday being part of the same theme.
In his speech, Putin had pointed out that there were new emerging centers of economic growth which will eventually be translated into political power.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing began his visit to India by arriving at Bihar, where he visited Nalanda to inaugurate a hall in memory of the 7th century Chinese traveler Huan Tsang.
At the ceremony, he hoped that the opening of the hall would mark a new chapter in Sino-Indian relations.
The Chinese minister said he was honored to be in Nalanda and would visit the ancient seat of learning again, but not by car.
"I will come here on foot the way Huan Tsang came," said Li.