India News | India Non-committal on Media Report on Possible RIC Summit

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) India on Thursday chose not to comment on a Russian media report that said a summit of the top leaders of Russia, India and China under a trilateral framework may take place in the near future.

Russian news agency TASS, quoting a Kremlin official, said holding of the RIC (Russia-India-China) summit figured in during a recent video conference between President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Xi and Putin had a trilateral meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka in June 2019, on the sidelines of a G-20 summit.

When asked about the report, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters that he was not in a position to comment on it.

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"The RIC foreign ministers' meeting in the virtual format took place on November 26. I do not have anything particular beyond that," he said.

Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said the topic of cooperation in the Russia-India-China format was "addressed" in the talks between Putin and Xi.

The leaders "agreed to continue exchanging opinions in this regard and to endeavour to hold the next summit within the RIC framework in the near future," he added, according to TASS.

"Putin informed Xi Jinping about the visit to New Delhi on December 6 in this context," the Kremlin's spokesperson said.

India and Russia vowed to ramp up cooperation in confronting major challenges such as terrorism and the situation in Afghanistan during Putin's visit to India.

Days before Putin's visit, the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China held talks in the virtual format with a focus on regional issues of mutual interests including the situation in Afghanistan.

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.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)