Moscow, May 29 (PTI): Moscow is genuinely interested in the revival of activities within the framework of the Russia-India-China (RIC) format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
“I would like to confirm our genuine interest in the earliest resumption of the work within the format of the troika — Russia, India, China — which was established many years ago on the initiative of (ex-Russian prime minister) Yevgeny Primakov, and which has organised meetings more than 20 times at the ministerial level since then, not only at the level of foreign policy chiefs, but also the heads of other economic, trade and financial agencies of the three countries,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS.
The foreign minister was addressing an international social and political conference on forming a single and equitable system of security and cooperation in Eurasia in the city of Perm in the Ural mountains, where Europe borders with Asia, at the plenary session of the conference.
“As of today, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to ease the situation on the border, and it seems to me that the time has come for the revival of this RIC troika,” Lavrov stressed.
He also alleged that NATO is blatantly trying to lure India into anti-China intrigues.
“I have no doubts that our Indian friends, and I say this on the basis of confidential conversations with them, obviously see this trend that can be actually deemed as a large provocation,” Lavrov said.
The RIC troika was frozen since the Galwan crisis in June 2020.
However, the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan in October 2024 was seen as a thaw when the two leaders expressed the need to improve bilateral relations. PTI VS ARI
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