Russia, India & China may hold summit soon: Yury Ushakov

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INTERNATIONAL DESK: Russia, India and China may hold a summit in the near future, according to Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov.

There was no confirmation by Indian authorities of any plan to hold such a summit. The claim by Ushakov followed President Vladimir Putin’s virtual summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in which, according to Kremlin, the topic of cooperation in the Russia-India-China format was addressed.

Russian TASS news agency quoted Ushakov as saying 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.

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

PM Narendra Modi has had no bilateral summit with Xi since the ongoing LAC stand-off started in April last year and India has repeatedly stated that there cannot be business as usual with China until the LAC disengagement is complete.

As TASS said in its report, the last meeting of leaders of the three countries in the RIC format took place in June, 2019 on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka.

“The topic of cooperation within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was also discussed in detail,” Ushakov said. (The Times of India)