China backs trilateral cooperation with Russia and India
Beijing is ready to advance trilateral cooperation with Moscow and New Delhi under the RIC (Russia-India-China) format, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman has said.
This statement came a few hours after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said that Moscow is holding discussions with its two key partners to revive the format.
"China-India-Russia cooperation not only serves the respective interests of the three countries, but also helps uphold peace and security and progress in the region and the world," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday. "China stands ready to maintain communication with Russia and India on advancing the trilateral cooperation."
The geopolitical troika was first conceptualized by Russian statesman and former prime minister Yevgeny Primakov in the 1990s to challenge the unipolar world order established by the United States. Although the idea was subsumed by BRICS, the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China have held 18 meetings in the RIC format.
"We are interested in bringing this format back to life because these three countries are not only important partners but also founding members of BRICS," Rudenko said on Thursday. "The absence of the RIC mechanism seems inappropriate under current global conditions."
New Delhi has also confirmed the talks with Moscow and Beijing.
"As to when this particular RIC format meeting is going to be held, it is something that will be worked out among the three countries in a mutually convenient manner, and we will let you know as and when that happens at an appropriate time when the meeting is to take place," Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.
In June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the recent thaw in relations between India and China presented a good opportunity to revive the trilateral group. "Now that, as I understand it, an understanding is being reached between India and China on how to calm the border situation, I believe the time has come to revive the RIC trio," he said at a Eurasian security conference.
(RT.com)
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