India signals willingness to revive Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral dialogue

India on Thursday signaled willingness 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.


Sources said that no meeting of the RIC format has been agreed to at this point in time and there are no discussions underway on its scheduling.

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."

Primakov was a former Prime Minister of Russia and a legendary diplomat and specialist on the Arab world.