Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Rudenko spoke about the work on resuming the format with India and China

Russia expects the resumption of the Russia–India–China format and is negotiating on this issue with Beijing and New Delhi, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Izvestia.

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"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. Therefore, the absence of this format, in my opinion, looks inappropriate. In this regard, we expect that the countries will agree to resume work within the framework of the RIC — of course, when relations between these states reach a level that allows them to work in a trilateral format," the diplomat told Izvestia.

Joint work in the RIC format has stalled, first because of the coronavirus, and then because of problems on the border between India and China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in 2024.

For the first time, the idea of a trilateral format of cooperation between Russia, China and India was expressed in 1996 by the then head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yevgeny Primakov. The first meeting of the foreign ministers in this format was held in 2002 at the UN General Assembly. Further negotiations were held every year, the last meeting at the moment took place in November 2021.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Three in one: Russia seeks to revive the format with India and China