Afghanistan, counter-terrorism dominate RIC meeting

Terming situation in Afghanistan as the "greatest concern" for the region, India along with Russia and China today demanded "additional measures" from the international community to prevent escalating threats in the war-torn country while agreeing to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation.
Sharing the assessment of developments in Afghanistan, the foreign ministers of RIC (Russia-India-China) in their third stand alone meeting here stressed on enhanced efforts to help it deal with the crucial transition it was going through in the face of complete NATO combat troop withdrawal by next year.
"We had a very productive discussion on these issues on counter-terrorism. We do want to look together at countering drug trade that is as greater a menace as terrorism and in fact intrinsically linked in many ways as it gets to finance terrorism," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said at a joint press conference with his counterparts Wang Yi from China and Sergei Lavrov from Russia.

Khurshid was asked if the three countries have discussed any concrete action on Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.
Wang said, "The issue (Afghanistan) is of greatest concern to the countries in this region including China, India and Russia....We want secure, stable and unified Afghanistan which enjoys development. We have always respected sovereign independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan."
They also need a helping hand from the international community, Wang said, adding there was a need to properly handle the three aspects - to ensure smooth general elections in Afghanistan, truly support political reconciliation process that is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned and jointly support UN efforts to coordinate international assistance.

Lavrov asked for "additional measures" by international community to prevent escalating security threats in Afghanistan.

Another major issue of congruence in today's deliberations ahead of the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Asia and Europe from tomorrow was counter-terrorism.
The three leaders discussed ways to enhance cooperation in the field of counter-terrorism.
According to sources, China, in view of terrorist attack at Tiananmen Square, came around to express strong support for regional cooperation in counter-terrorism.
Russia also expressed concerned about terror spreading from Afghanistan, the sources said, adding all the three countries discussed cooperation in Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) under Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.