Terrorism and climate change dominated the agenda at the 9th trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of India-Russia-China with all three vowing to put up a united front.

Expressing concern at the fast deteriorating situation in Kabul, the three — External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jeichi and their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov — expressed hope that the second round of the presidential poll, on November 7, would be peaceful.

Restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan was the key to counter terrorism in that country said Lavrov.

“We had very useful discussions on a wide range of issues and shared our assessments on various current developments,” Krishna said.

A joint communiqué at the end of the meeting stressed that the three, put together, stretch over 20% of the total global landmass and represent 39% of the global population and were hence important members of the international community.

Condemning terrorism, they underlined that the fight against it needs strong international cooperation, particularly within the framework of the UN .

Climate change

“The three reiterated that they take the issue of climate change very seriously and they are ready to strengthen international cooperation and make active effort to jointly tackle climate change,” the statement said.

Global financial crisis

Despite the impact of the international financial crisis, it was noted that the pace of development of the three countries had improved contributing to faster growth among them.

“The impact of the economic crisis is being overcome. There has been a sign in the economies of countries stabilizing or picking up. At the same time there are new global threats of terrorism, climate change, communicable diseases,” Jiechi said.

Nuclear Iran

The joint statement said: “They shared the view that Iran is entitled to the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and at the same time should fulfill its due international obligations...: UN reform

The need for a comprehensive reform of the UN so it can deal with current global challenges more effectively was discussed.