The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that Russia, India and China advocate a resumption of negotiations between Belgrade and Priština over Kosovo.

Speaking yesterday in Ekaterinburg with the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers, Lavrov said that the three countries believed that the “Kosovo question” had to be settled exclusively on the basis of international law.

According to the three foreign ministers, Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence on February 17 had contravened UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

In a statement, three ministries stated, “Russia, India and Chine advocate the resumption of negotiations between Belgrade and Priština within an international-legal framework, and believe an agreement should be reached between them regarding all the problems of that Serbian province.”

This was the seventh such trilateral ministerial meeting since 2003, when the Russian, Indian and Chinese foreign ministers met at the UN General Assembly in New York.