A Timely Initiative

INDIA, RUSSIA AND China took a small but significant step towards making their combined weight count in international affairs when their Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, held in Kazakhstan last week. The three countries are not interested in setting up formal organisational structures to facilitate the trilateral interaction. Nor do they entertain any notion that they might act in concert against any country or group of countries in the future. The Foreign Ministers were careful not to proclaim that they opposed any trend in international affairs such as the unilateralism that characterises the policy of the United States. Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi probably reckoned that a joint declaration on these lines would be provocative and unnecessary. After all, none of them has endorsed the policies that Washington unilaterally sought to implement in Iraq and elsewhere. The three countries preferred to take a positive and inclusive approach by projecting their interaction as a process that would "strengthen a collective approach to world affairs." While the approach seems low key, there is apparently a new seriousness in intent. The three rounds of trilateral discussions to date have been held on the sidelines of international conferences and with no fixed agenda. The three countries have now agreed to hold the first stand-alone meeting in Russia next year and to focus on a few judiciously selected issues.

In their obsession with Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network, those who have sought to shape international public opinion appear to have forgotten that global terror manifests itself in different forms and strikes at multiple targets. Double standards are clearly being applied when India and Russia are pressed to talk to militant groups ranged against them even as the U.S. claims an untrammelled right to do whatever it decides in the name of waging a global war against terrorism. Moscow has often enough expressed its indignation at Western governments giving asylum to the leaders of Chechen extremist outfits. New Delhi has not been provided adequate support for its struggle against groups that commit terrorist atrocities in Kashmir and other parts of the country. Beijing is upset with the Western media and self-proclaimed human rights champions for describing fundamentalist rebels who resort to unadulterated terrorism in the Xingjian region as "freedom fighters." While the three Governments are not about to disassociate themselves from the global campaign against terror, they have concluded they need to map out a parallel or independent approach to deal with the menace. They have tried to ensure that their concerns are given due recognition by calling for the updating of the list of organisations and individuals involved in terrorism that is maintained by a sub-committee of the United Nations. Russia and India are spearheading efforts to make international conventions against terrorism more comprehensive and universal. While terrorism is currently in the forefront of the tripartite discussions, plans for economic cooperation, especially in the energy sector, are likely to come on the agenda.

New Delhi can take heart from signs that this nascent move towards trilateral cooperation will boost its chances of securing a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council. While China has not declared that it would support this bid, it has agreed to examine jointly with Russia and India the report of a high-level panel on U.N. reform that will be submitted in December. If the three countries can sustain this cooperative spirit, they can bring a decent measure of corrective balance to international affairs. India must be fully prepared to play its part in this progressive venture.