Last Update: March 08, 2023, 17:01 IST
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met China’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting last week. (Credits: Twitter / S Jaishankar)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wants India and China to be friends and announced that a meeting of the multilateral grouping would be held later this year.
India is unlikely to participate in the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping meeting until the situation on the border between New Delhi and Beijing normalises, said a report.
Foreign ministers of the three countries meet from time to time to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. trade standard informed of.
The three countries have not met since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, while the leaders have not met in person since June 2019. The foreign minister-level meeting in November 2021 was the last time the countries met at any level.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in India that Moscow wants India and China to be friends and announced that the multilateral grouping would meet later this year.
The move was seen as Russia’s attempt to counter the Western narrative that Moscow is left without diplomatic allies.
India has not condemned Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and has reiterated the need to find a peaceful solution to the crisis through dialogue and diplomacy.
India said that there is a need to normalize the situation along the India-China border in Ladakh before the meetings can take place.
“The RIC meeting has not been held for some time due to the changed realities in India’s own neighborhood and the wider world. Any decision of the RIC meeting will have to take these things into consideration. In particular, there is a need to normalize the situation on the Chinese border before holding the meetings,” an official said. Business Standard.
On the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the first meeting between the two countries after the recent standoff and strained bilateral ties with Beijing that remain “unusual”. He said that peace and tranquility is necessary for any kind of normalization in relations.
The official further said that the military standoff between the two countries needs to be resolved first.
Relations between India and China are at the lowest level in last 60 years after the brutal clash in Galwan Valley in June 2020.
“The Chinese border aggression has affected multilateral efforts involving China and India, not just RIC. For the level of discussion in RIC to go back to where they were earlier, the ongoing military standoff in Ladakh needs to be resolved first,” said another official.
RIC is an important grouping as it brings together the three largest Eurasian countries which are also geographically vast.
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