Why China-Russia ‘troika’ talks are back on India’s table
India indicated earlier this month its openness to resuming the Russia-India-China (RIC) dialogue, a platform established in the early 2000s to foster coordination among the three Eurasian powers.
Describing the RIC as a consultative mechanism for addressing shared regional and global challenges, New Delhi’s Ministry of External Affairs emphasised on July 17 that any decision on resuming talks would be taken “in a mutually convenient manner”. No timeline was provided for when this might happen.
The move came just weeks after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had voiced strong support for reviving the format. Speaking at a conference last month, Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s desire 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 former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov”.
