Bangalore hosts a major international meeting after 23 years

During their last meeting, at Yekaterinburg in Russia, RIC foreign ministers had decided to hold their next round of discussions outside the national capital, a senior official said Monday.
"The foreign ministers of RIC decided to hold the next trilateral meeting outside the Indian capital (New Delhi) when they previously met at Yekaterinburg in May 2008. As the host, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna decided Bangalore as the ideal venue," external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters here.

Krishna, who hails from Bangalore, was former chief minister of Karnataka.
It was, however, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who participated in the eighth trilateral meeting of RIC foreign ministers in May 2008 as India's external affairs minister then.
"This is not the first time a trilateral meeting is being held outside the capital of the host country. On previous occasions, such standalone meetings were held at Vladivostok May 15, 2005, and at Harbin in China Oct 25, 2007," he said.

"It is an honour and pleasure to hold such an important meeting in this beautiful city. If there is one city where such an international event can take place in India, it has to be Bangalore, which is known the world over as the technology hub," Prakash pointed out.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi arrived here late Monday along with their delegations for the trilateral meeting.
Krishna and Yang will also hold a bilateral meeting Tuesday evening after they sign a joint declaration with Lavrov at the end of the trilateral dialogue in the afternoon.

The last time Bangalore played host to a major international meet was the second South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in November 1986 under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.