Sunday, May 29 2005 12:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In their first ever 'stand alone' trilateral meeting, Foreign Ministers of India, Russia and China will hold talks in Russia's far-eastern port city of Vladivostok next week on a whole spectrum of issues.

External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh will leave on Tuesday (May 31, 2005) for the meeting with his counterparts from Russia, Sergei Lavrov and Li Zhaoxing from China on June 2, 2005.

Foreign Ministers of the three countries have met thrice in the past -- twice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2002 and 2003 and the next year in Almaty, when they gathered for the meeting of the Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). But this is the first occasion when they are assembling together specially for the trilateral meeting.

Official sources here said the meeting was expected to impart a new impetus to collaboration between the three countries.

Ahead of the meeting, Lavrov said in Moscow, "Our relations are developing and they are not aimed against anybody, but are pursued in the interests of our countries."

During his visit to Vladivostok, Singh is also likely to hold a separate meeting with his Russian counterpart to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral ties.

New Delhi has emphatically stated that the trilateral engagement was not aimed at creating any power bloc or to target any country.

It was set up as a forum to explore how the three countries could take advantage of each other's strengths for the benefit of their peoples.

At their last meeting in Almaty, the Foreign Ministers had underpinned the importance of "collective" approach to global issues and highlighted the need for a common understanding to deal with terrorism and drug trafficking.

China, which overcame initial reservations in entering any such trilateral engagement, has since shown active interest in developing these relations. It was originally a Russian proposal first mooted in 1998 by then Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov.

On his visit to India in April last, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had stated that the China, Russia and India were countries with influence.

"We have the same or similar positions and concerns in such issues as promoting the democratisation of international relations and maintaining international security and stability," he had said.

UN reforms, including enlargement of the Security Council, will be one issue that Singh will be keen to discuss with his interlocutors.

Russia has voiced its support for India becoming a permanent member of the Security Council while China remains non-committal though it says New Delhi has an important role to play in world affairs.