Mukherjee would also participate in a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) also in Yekaterinburg on May 16, official spokesperson in the Indian External Affairs Ministry Navtej Sarna told reporters here Monday night.

The trilateral Foreign Ministers meeting in Yekaterinburg would be the fourth stand alone trilateral Minister-level meeting. Earlier, stand alone trilateral meetings have been held in Harbin(China) on October 24, 2007, New Delhi on February 14, 2007 and Vladivostok (Russia) on June 2, 2005.
"With regard to the agenda of the trilateral meeting, such meets have essentially discussed political and economic issues, issues related to UN reforms, terrorism, proliferation of WMDs, situation in the region, in Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, DPRK, Middle-East as well as trilateral economic cooperation. Particularly in the last meeting at Harbin they decided to form a consultative mechanism at the level of Head of Department in the Foreign Offices and hold expert level consultations in agriculture, health and disaster management," Sarna said.

The three Foreign Ministers have also met on the sidelines of multilateral meetings in September 2002, September 2003, October 2004 and September 2005. As part of the trilateral process, India hosted a trilateral business conference in New Delhi on December 15 , 2007 and a trilateral seminar on the evolution of geo-political strategic trends in New Delhi on 27-29 March 2008.

"The BRIC Foreign Ministers meeting in Yekaterinburg will be the first stand-alone meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the BRIC countries," Sarna said, adding, "The BRIC meeting also has a wide agenda which covers strategic issues of international politics and security, a review of the international situation, proliferation and disarmament, counter-terrorism, fight against organised crime and drug-trafficking as well as economic issues and issues of global interest such as climate change, and international development assistance".