India signalled willingness on Thursday to consider reviving the long-inactive Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral dialogue, following renewed interest from Moscow. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that any decision would be made "in a mutually convenient manner".
Describing the RIC as a platform to discuss regional and global matters of shared concern, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "RIC is a consultative format, which is a mechanism where three countries come together to discuss global and regional issues of interest to them." He added that scheduling would depend on coordination among the three countries, without specifying a timeline.
Lavrov renews call to restart the 'troika'
Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov recently urged the resumption of the RIC format. Speaking at a conference last month, Lavrov said, "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 Yevgeny Primakov."
Why the RIC has been inactive
The RIC framework has seen little activity in recent years, first due to the Covid-19 pandemic and later due to the 2020 military standoff between India and China in Eastern Ladakh, which caused a freeze in relations. Backing Lavrov’s remarks, Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko said Russia is in “active negotiations” with both New Delhi and Beijing. “This topic appears in our negotiations with both of them. We are interested in making this format work, because these three countries are important partners, besides the founders of BRICS," he said, as reported by Russian news portal TASS.
China backs RIC as a tool for regional stability
China also expressed support for resuming the trilateral format. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the cooperation between Russia, India and China “not only serves the respective interests of the three countries but also helps uphold peace, security, stability and progress in the region and the world,” according to PTI.
The push to restart RIC follows a series of diplomatic exchanges. External affairs minister S Jaishankar recently visited China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting and held talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts. Prior to this, national security adviser Ajit Doval and defence minister Rajnath Singh also visited China in June, indicating a phase of renewed diplomatic engagement.
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