Russia-China-India Trilateral: Calibrating a Fine Balance, BY R N Das, November 15, 2010, The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA)
“The Russia-China-India trilateral began in the Chinese city of Wuhan on 14 November and will conclude today. India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are participating in the meeting. The meeting is taking place against a very favourable and positive backdrop. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi only very recently and had a free and frank exchange of views on issues that have a bearing on the bilateral relationship including the difficult ones. The meeting created a positive atmosphere in the relationship between the two countries, which was somewhat vitiated by unsavoury incidents such as the issue of stapled visas to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, in September, there was also a summit meeting between the Russian President and his Chinese counterpart in Beijing. In addition, there was a summit level meeting between Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in New Delhi on 8 November. It was followed on November 12 by Chinese President Hu Jintao meeting Barack Obama on the margins of the G-20 meeting in Seoul. All these engagements at the highest level between and among the stakeholders create the perfect connect for the Wuhan trilateral, because this nascent nomenclature was looked at with a degree of suspicion by the US….”