China, Russia and India have agreed to enhance coordination and cooperation, firmly uphold multilateralism and jointly fight against terrorism.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj (L-R) pose for a group photo ahead of the 16th meeting of the foreign ministers of China, Russia and India on Wednesday in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo: SHINE)
The agreement came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held the 16th meeting of the foreign ministers of China, Russia and India on Wednesday in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province.
Wang said China, Russia and India should enhance coordination and jointly promote world peace and stability.
Wang said leaders of the three countries successfully held a meeting in Argentina in November, which pointed out the direction for and provided a strong impetus to trilateral cooperation.
He suggested that the three countries should firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at the core, adhere to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and deepen counterterrorism and security cooperation.
It is necessary to resolutely oppose unilateralism and protectionism, continually push forward the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment and promote the construction of an open world economy, said Wang.
He added that all of the three countries have proposed their initiatives of connectivity, and they should cooperate with each other and jointly promote the process of regional integration.
Lavrov and Swaraj said the international community should observe the principle of the UN Charter and comply with the norms of international laws and relations.
They called on the three countries to give full play to multilateral platforms including the UN. This would further strengthen coordination and cooperation and make joint contributions to properly handle international and regional hot spot issues as well as tackle challenges facing humanity.
After the meeting, the three countries released a joint communique.
The three sides agreed to jointly combat all forms of terrorism, enhance communication over counterterrorism policies, and will especially make efforts to eradicate terrorism and extremism.
On the Venezuela issue, they said it should be settled by Venezuelan people through constructive dialogue rather than resorting to violence. Military intervention is opposed.
The three sides also agreed to constantly consolidate and expand trilateral practical cooperation, and work on setting up a meeting mechanism among their defense ministers in an appropriate time. China also proposed to discuss "China, Russia, India plus" cooperation, so as to improve global influence of the trilateral cooperation.
The next meeting between three foreign ministers will be held in Russia, Wang said.
While meeting with Swaraj, Wang said China is concerned about the current tension in South Asia. As a friend of both India and Pakistan, China urges restraint from the two sides to avoid escalation of the situation. China expects the two countries to find out the truth of the relevant incident through dialogue and jointly safeguard regional peace, he said.