Moscow, Nov 12 : India and Russia today jointly pledged to take forward the India-Russia-China troika forward to "promising heights."

At the end of two hours of deliberations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the two leaders waxed eloquently about their bilateral relations, but were almost effusive in their plans for expansion of the scope of the troika.

President Putin spoke about the need for the leaders of the three countries to meet more regularly, and Prime Minister Singh said, "We attach great importance to India-Russia-China cooperation."

He said the three countries have "civilizational links, and there was need for new complements to this relationship."

"We have an obligation to work on areas of convergence," he added.
 
India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world's population, a fifth of the global economy....a serious threat to the leader of the unipolar world of today. That is if the three countries can shed their mutual suspicion and work towards giving more concrete shape to the geo-political strategic combo.

It is a happy meal that will serve almost half of the world's population. Surely worth a try. Even if the US cannot digest this happy meal.

The unprecedented meeting in St Petersburg in July last year between Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit had raised summer temperatures here.

Putin has consistently criticized the so-called leadership of the US in the unipolar world. He has actively sought to encourage the troika to move forward in all spheres, including health care, industries, and trade.

While it is ambitious to suggest that a strategic axis can be born between the three at this stage, it cannot be denied that this is an area where more than half of the world's nuclear arsenal is based.

When Yevgeny Primakov of Russia talked first of a "strategic triangle" it was met with much scepticism. While India-Russia ties have withstood the test of time and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the deep rooted suspicion that marks India-China relations and China-Russia relations, made Primakov's statement almost wishful thinking of a feverish mind.

But in the final year of his presidency, Putin, the architect of Russia's emergence in the new millennium, is giving fresh impetus to this troika.

Consolidating relationship with India, despite the latter's dalliance with the US in the past two years while forging ties with China, the former KGB chief is seeking to neutralize American dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Alarmists in the US will see this as a dangerous trend that could seemingly unbalance the current situation for the US. It could even lead to the formation of 'bloc' that has echoes of the Cold war era. So far none of the troika nations have sought to dispel these fears. (ANI)