'Time to revive RIC troika': Russia says India, China have reached agreement to 'calm' border situation

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for the revival of the Russia-India-China (RIC) troika.

Now that India and China have reached an understanding regarding the situation at the border, the RIC troika should be revived, said Lavrov.

“Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this RIC troika,” said Lavrov.

The RIC is an informal trilateral grouping for cooperation among Russia, India, and China. While the group was envisioned as a platform to counter the unipolar world order led by the United States, the group has not made much progress by Quad because of tensions between India and China. The situation is further complicated by the ever-growing ties between Russia, India's historical partner, and China, India's main strategic adversary .

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Lavrov disses Quad, pitches RIC

In remarks shared by Russian state media, Lavrov said that India needs to see “provocations” by fellow Quad members.

Lavrov said that Quad members conduct military activities targeting China in the garb of economic and trade cooperation. He went on to say that the RIC troika should now be resumed as India and China have reached an understanding.

“I am sure that our Indian friends see these provocations [of Quad members] and we are speaking about anti-China initiatives in the eastern parts of Asia. We would like to reaffirm our interest in seeking resumption of trilateral established many years ago…When India and China have come to an agreement on how the situation at the border can be resolved, I think it can be resumed in this format, the RIC format,” said Lavrov.

Russia-India-China Trilateral Revival?

"Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this RIC troika," FM Lavrov said. pic.twitter.com/rsNnMWxEKN

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 30, 2025

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In October 2024, India and China reached an understanding to disengage at two of the friction points in eastern Ladakh and restore coordinated patrolling at three locations in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh’s border areas. However, unlike how Lavrov said, the Ladakh standoff has not yet been resolved completely and the standoff at several friction points remain unresolved.

Moreover, even though the Ladakh standoff has now been partially resolved, the India-China relationship is not going to the pre-2020 level.

In an article in Oct. 2024 , Firstpost’s Madhur Sharma noted, “While India’s trade with China has continued through the tensions and the thaw in the relationship is set to usher in more engagement, it is expected to be cautious engagement instead of pageantry in the run-up to the conflict in 2020…India is much more closely aligned with the West when it comes to China than to historical partners like Russia. Even if New Delhi does not mention it, the approach of ‘cooperate where you can, compete where you should, and challenge where you must’ has defined India’s dealings with China and the world lately and it is expected to continue.”

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Madhur further noted that, as China rejects India’s sovereignty over Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh and continues to illegally occupy Indian territory ceded to it by Pakistan, the two countries cannot align themselves beyond a certain point.

“India and China have some fundamental differences that would disallow any rapprochement beyond a certain point. In a fundamental divergence, while India seeks a genuine multilateral world, China seeks to usurp the world order and impose its own hegemony on the world,” noted Sharma.