China stands ready to maintain communication with Russia and India on advancing the trilateral cooperation
Beijing, July 17: China has expressed support for Russia’s proposal to revive the dormant Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral format, saying such cooperation would benefit regional and global stability. The endorsement comes after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko stated that Moscow is in talks with both New Delhi and Beijing to restart the RIC dialogue, calling the absence of the format “inappropriate.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian confirmed China’s willingness to maintain communication with Russia and India to advance trilateral cooperation. He emphasized that the RIC framework serves the shared interests of all three nations and promotes peace and progress in the broader region.
The push to reactivate RIC follows Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to China for the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting, where he also met his Russian and Chinese counterparts. The RIC mechanism had been largely inactive due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 India-China border standoff in Eastern Ladakh, which severely strained bilateral ties.
The freeze began easing after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan last year. Since then, high-level exchanges between India and China have resumed.
Russia has shown renewed interest in RIC, partly due to its close ties with both India and China, and concerns over India’s growing strategic partnerships with the U.S. and EU. Analysts believe that with Moscow’s involvement, the RIC platform could foster dialogue despite lingering India-China tensions.
Russia, India, and China were the original drivers behind BRICS and the New Development Bank. However, tensions between India and China, especially Beijing’s support for Pakistan, have undermined the RIC’s relevance in recent years (PTI)