Kremlin reanimates Primakov's triangle

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL 20. Under its new President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, Russia will strive to forge trilateral cooperation China and India on regional security, broached two years ago by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Yevgeny Primakov.

``We would like to help Delhi and Beijing in every way to resolve their differences, with the aim of creating conditions for developing interaction between Russia, China and India on issues of regional security,'' said Mr. Sergei Ivanov, secretary to Russia's Security Council. At the same time he stressed that Moscow was not trying to forge a bloc.

``We are not talking by any means about creating some sort of a military-political alliance targeted against others,'' Mr. Ivanov said addressing a conference of the Organisation of Asian News Agencies (OANA) that opened in Moscow on Thursday. Russia is due to take over OANA chairmanship from Iran for the next three years.

``We are talking above all about promoting business- like cooperation and interaction in the sphere of combating terrorism and resolving conflicts on the basis of strict non- interference in internal affairs,'' he said.

This is the first time that a senior Kremlin official outlined Russia's priorities in Asia after the election of Mr. Putin as Russia's new President. Mr. Ivanov, who is believed to be very close to the President-elect, named India as one of five centres of power in Asia which define the security setup in the region.

``In the immediate future security prospects in the Asia-Pacific region, as before, will depend on the balance of forces among the main poles of power - the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, the ASEAN and India. Therefore, international relations in the region will naturally drift towards multipolarity.''

The Russian security chief called for further cooperation with India as one of the five poles in Asia. ``We are trying to put to maximum use our common interests and identical approaches with India to main problems of the region,'' Mr. Ivanov said, noting India's ``increasingly active involvement in regional affairs''.

Russia favours active dialogue with the U.S. on regional security in Asia. According to Mr. Ivanov, ``despite their own frictions with the U.S., most countries in the region recognise a stabilising role of U.S. military presence.``

``There is no point in trying to rock the boat and try to change the status quo,'' he said. At the same time, he called for resolutely opposing ``attempts to bring power pressure'' in Asia and to assert ``concepts preaching limited sovereignty and intervention on humanitarian grounds''.

Mr. Ivanov confirmed Russia's commitment to sell arms in the Asia-Pacific region ``on a selective basis,'' to avoid provoking a ``runaway arms race''. Russia is willing to ``deepen'' defence cooperation with China, India and Vietnam, and to ``develop'' it with Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Russian security chief said.

Asia-Pacific cooperation

The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, who too was speaking at the OANA conference, said Russia is open to wide- ranging cooperation with the Asia-Pacific nations. Mr. Igor Ivanov, too, called for building up a ``community of cooperation and security'' in the Asia-Pacific region, based on the shared interests and economic interdependence.

``The future of the Asia-Pacific region is inseparably linked with steady progress of integrational processes,'' he said.

According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the media is to play a key role in turning Asia into a flourishing region. At the same time, he warned against misusing the media for stoking confrontation and enmity.

``Regrettably, we are often witnesses to latter-day information wars that have enormous destructive power,'' Mr. Ivanov said. ``They are especially dangerous in times of crisis, inciting, in stead of defusing, this or that conflict. There have been many cases recently when unverified information or outright disinformation circulated through media led to wrong military and political decisions.''

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