Manmohan, Hu, Putin to discuss trilateral alliance

BEIJING: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the first meeting under the trilateral mechanism with leaders of Russia and China in St Petersburg next week and discuss the “positive” role their countries can play to safeguard global peace.

Prime Minister Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the ‘outreach’ summit of G-8 in St Petersburg, said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai.

The Group of Eight Industrialised nations would be holding their annual meeting on July 16-17 in the Russian city. India and China are among countries invited for the ‘outreach’ session of the summit. “The Russian side proposed a trilateral meeting between the leaders of China, Russia and India to try and strengthen and deepen the cooperation between the three countries. They made a good proposal and we respect the arrangement of the host country,” Cui said.

“The Foreign Ministers of the three countries have been meeting each others for many years. So it is natural for the leaders of the three countries to continue their meetings in St Petersburg,” Cui said.

“I believe they (the three leaders) will talk about how to make the three countries play a positive and constructive role in the world to safeguard global peace and promote international cooperation. I believe the three countries share the consensus on this great objective,” he said.