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BANGALORE, India: The foreign ministers of India, China and Russia stressed on Tuesday the increasing influence of their countries on the world stage and said they had all weathered the economic crisis well.
Ministers from the three emerging giants said that during talks in the Indian technology hub of Bangalore they had found common ground over issues ranging from climate change to trade, security and development.
Their joint statement vowed to pursue a further "deepening and strengthening" of trilateral cooperation to ensure peace and stability in the region.
"Despite the impact of the international financial crisis, the pace of development of the three countries has improved, contributing to faster growth among them," it added.
The meeting of the countries - normally grouped with Brazil as BRIC - brought together Russia's Sergei Lavrov, India's S.M. Krishna and China's Yang Jiechi.
Yang said afterwards the participants were all major emerging countries that "have the same or similar positions" on matters of key international concern, which included drug trafficking, organised crime and oil and gas deals.
The statement said the three nations took the threat of global warming "very seriously" and that they would all work towards achieving a successful result at the UN emissions conference in Copenhagen in December.
India, China and Russia stretch over 20 per cent of the world's total land mass and include about 40 per cent of the global population, the statement said.
Shashi Tharoor, India's deputy foreign minister, struck an upbeat note on Sino-Indian ties, which have been hit over plans for Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to visit an Indian state at the heart of a border dispute between the neighbours.
China regards the Dalai Lama, who has lived in northern India for decades, as a "splittist" bent on independence for Tibet.
"Things seem to be very good," Tharoor told the NDTV news channel in reference to the cross-border relations, adding that "minor irritants" had been blown out of proportion by the host nation's media.
Krishna and Lavrov met in Moscow on October 21, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the weekend on the margins of an ASEAN summit.
Singh said he and Wen had a "frank and constructive" discussion over control of Arunachal Pradesh state, a dispute that took the two nations to war nearly five decades ago and has dogged ties ever since.
Beijing recently also registered its annoyance with New Delhi at a visit by Singh to Arunachal Pradesh while he was campaigning ahead of state elections.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that police in Bangalore had arrested two Tibetan protesters who shouted anti-China slogans and tried to enter the talks' venue.
- AFP/sc
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