Beijing, September 9: The foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) would hold a luncheon meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Moscow, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow on a four-day visit to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the SCO of which both India and China are members. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is the host of the meeting of SCO foreign ministers being held in the Russian capital from Wednesday to Thursday. Also Read | Donald Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2021 for Peace Agreement Between Israel and UAE.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also hold bilateral meetings with relevant member states of the SCO and attend a luncheon for the RIC foreign ministers, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here.

Under the RIC framework, the foreign ministers of the three countries meet periodically to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of their interest. Also Read | China Starts Fresh Build Up North of Pangong Lake Day After Firing Incident.

Zhao, however, said he was not aware of the timing of the RIC foreign ministers' meeting.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted as observers of the grouping in 2005. Both the countries were admitted as full members of the bloc in 2017.

(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)