Comment by the Information and Press Department on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s participation in the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, India and China

On December 11, the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) will meet in New Delhi.

The participants will exchange views on the current situation in the region and in the world, and will discuss ways to establish a comprehensive, equal and indivisible security architecture and ensure inclusive sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region (APR). The External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj will be chairing the meeting.

As in their previous meetings, the three ministers will focus on the situation in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, and will discuss joint efforts to combat terrorism, illegal drug trafficking, strengthening international information security, as well as countering money laundering and financing of terrorism.

This format emerged from trilateral meetings on the margins of UN General Assembly sessions in New York in 2003−2005, as well as the ministerial segment of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, held in Alma-Ata in October 2004. The foreign ministers of RIC have been holding separate meetings outside international formats since 2005, taking turns in hosting the meetings.

Against the backdrop of an emerging multipolar world order, this troika can be viewed as an example of effective joint efforts to find answers to urgent matters related to security and economic development, both at the global and regional levels. The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the purpose of RIC is to promote the principle of equal multilateral cooperation on international matters.

The RIC format is designed to help the three countries gradually step up cooperation in various areas. During their meeting in April 2016 in Moscow, the foreign ministers of the three countries agreed to expand the RIC agenda to include a number of new topics of mutual interest. This led the three countries to launch consultations on the foreign ministry level on APR-related matters, as well as between financial intelligence services, experts on counter-terrorism and international information security, as well as between young diplomats.

Russia is committed to further strengthening dialogue within the troika and to working together to promote common positions on the urgent issues in today’s world, including better coordinating foreign policy initiatives on international and regional forums.

A joint statement on coordinated approaches will be released following the meeting.