Foreign ministers of India, Russia, China to hold talks on Friday

New Delhi, November 25

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks in the virtual format on Friday with a focus on key regional and global issues.

The meeting, being held under the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral framework, will be chaired by Jaishankar, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

“The 18th meeting of the foreign ministers of the Russian Federation, Republic of India and People’s Republic of China will be held in digital video-conference format on November 26,” it said.

The three foreign ministers are expected to deliberate on regional issues of mutual interests, including the situation in Afghanistan.

“The foreign ministers are expected to discuss further strengthening of RIC trilateral cooperation including exchange of views on various regional and international issues of importance,” the MEA said in a statement.

Under the RIC framework, the foreign ministers of the three countries meet periodically to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of their interest.

India took over the chairmanship of the RIC after the last meeting of the trilateral in Moscow in September last year.

Following Friday’s meeting, Jaishankar will pass on the chairmanship of the RIC to the Chinese foreign minister for the next one year.

The meeting is taking place in the midst of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.

Jaishankar and Wang had a bilateral dialogue in September in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

In the talks, the two foreign ministers agreed that the military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should continue discussions to resolve the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh. PTI

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