Russia for engagement with India, China to check fin crisis

Russia is ready for close cooperation with India and China in coping with the ongoing global financial turmoil ahead of next month's G-20 ministerial meeting and summit, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today said.  

"Russia is ready to coordinate its further steps with the leading emerging economies, such as India and China, in various formats," Lavrov told state-run Vesti FM radio.

The G-20 ministerial meeting is slated to take place in Sao Paolo, ahead of Washington summit of November 15, he said.  

Earlier this week Lavrov had discussed the global financial turmoil rooted in the US sub prime crisis with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.  

The Russian leadership is also expected to discuss the possibility of close interaction with the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who is arriving here on Monday on a two-day visit, shortly after Asia-Europe Meeting in Chinese capital, at which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also been invited.  

Lavrov said that finance ministers of the G-20 nations will meet in the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo early next month, ahead of a Washington summit of the most developed and emerging economies of the world on November 15.  

Ahead of the Washington summit President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia must actively participate in formulating new rules of the game in the global economy, in order to maximise benefits and to promote a new ideology.  

It will ensure the democracy and stability of the global financial architecture based on more financial centres, more reserve currencies and more mechanisms for collective decision-making, Medvedev added.