India, Russia, and China will hold their first structured foreign ministerial meeting in New Delhi seen as an effort to coordinate response and efforts in international affairs, although the foreign ministers have met thrice over the last 2 years. The past meetings have been informal-- Twice on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York and once in Vladivostok and this is the first formal meeting that will provide the forum a form. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Hu Jintao met on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit in St Petersburg last July.

Slated for a February 14 meeting, the foreign ministers will meet to discuss regional and global issues such as terrorism, drug trafficking, and crime. The three leaders have been careful to assert that the grouping is not targeted against any single country or block. Putin said that the three nations decided to get together because they have “practically identical” views on many international issues and also that their recommendations “are very close.