India, China and Russia have been holding regular talks since 2002 and their leaders have often met on the sidelines of multilateral gatherings.

With this upcoming trilateral meeting between the Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, India’s external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in China’s north eastern city of Harbin, a fresh round of dialogue will commence.

Professor Ajay Patnayak, an expert on Russian affairs at Jawahar lal Nehru University in New Delhi, explained that the meeting was significant because "China is an emerging power, a neighbour with which India has some border problems".

He added it would be "good for India to have good neighbourly ties with China" and explained that Russia was an old strategic ally for India. "They share certain common perceptions in Central Asia and South Asia."

Issues of common concern

Liu Jianchao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, hinted the focus would be on exchanging views about major international and regional "issues of common concern".

Professor Patnayak explained that one of these issues would be terrorism. "There are small pockets of terrorism both in China and in India, and also in Russia and its neighbourhood, which are threatening their regional stability."

He said they would also discuss the "multi-polar world order, with no power centres".

Energy-hungry

The three sides will also explore further co-operation in various fields, including trade, infrastructure, health, IT and biotechnology and especially energy.

Energy-hungry India and China have in the past expressed an interest in Russia's rich oil and gas reserves.

"Russia is the number one supplier of energy, gas and coal. And Russia has possibilities to supply energy to both China and to India. We see that Chinese and Indian companies have already begun to explore certain fields in Siberia and Sakhalin," explained Yevgenii Kozhokin, the director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies in Moscow.

Counterbalance to US?

Every time the three sides come together for talks, observers speculate that the meetings are aimed at forming an alliance to counter the influence of the United States in the region.

However, Professor Kozhokin ruled out such notions: "I don’t think the three ministers are thinking of confrontation with the US. I think they have a positive agenda. All these countries have good ties with the US. So I don’t think they are trying to block the hegemony of the US."

Professor Patnayak from India agrees only to a certain extent: "They won't build this up as a forum against the US, but in the long-term perspective, they would like to strengthen their position and limit outside interference, and they would like to solve their problems by co-operating among themselves."

The talks will last until Friday. According to a Russian foreign ministry statement, the three sides are expected to sign a joint communiqué, which will state their common vision and identify concrete ways of interacting in future.