China: India today ruled out being part of the controversial US-led missile defence system, opposed by countries like Russia and China. "India does not take part in such military arrangement. Therefore the question of our participation does not arise," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said during a joint press conference here at the conclusion of the third standalone trilateral meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia here.

Mukherjee also noted that the issue of missile defence did not come up for discussions at the trilateral meeting he had with his Chinese and Russian counterparts, Yang Jiechi and Sergei Lavrov, respectively. "It was not discussed in our trilateral forum. It was not our agenda and we did not consider it necessary to discuss it," he said. Lavrov, commenting on the issue noted that there is a lot of talk about various possible modalities and proposals.

"I want to tell you that during the recent visit to Moscow by the US Secretary of States (Condoleezza Rice) and US Defence Secretary (Robert Gates), the issue of missile defence system was discussed at length and in great detail," he said. "Our colleagues from the US have promised to transmit their proposals to us on paper and we are waiting for those proposals to arrive," the Russian Foreign Minister said. At the same time, Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang noted that the US push for missile defence system has attracted wide attention of the international community. "Our stance on the issue of missile defence system is consistent and clear," he said.

Source : PTI