PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, December 2. /TASS/. Tops diplomats from Russia, India and China will work out initiatives to strengthen trilateral cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday.
At a meeting with the Chinese and Indian leaders, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty summit in Buenos Aires, Russian President Vladimir Putin came up with an initiative to convene regular meetings in the trilateral, the so-called RIC (Russia, India, China), format on the margins of international event and big summits.
"The leaders agreed to continue top-level meetings and issued instructions to their countries’ foreign ministers to elaborate proposals for the RIC leaders on how to make this cooperation more efficient and expand it to new areas," Lavrov said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on the Rossiya 1 television channel.
"What unites our nations was underscored at the meeting in the RIC format [in Buenos Aires]. First of all, it is striving to prevent disintegration of universal structures that are functioning on the basis of the United Nations Charter and its principles, such as equality, respect to sovereignty, non-interference into domestic affairs," Lavrov noted. "In general, the leaders voiced their commitment to defend the basics of the multi-lateral, open economic and trade system. Indian Prime Minister Modi spoke resolutely against the sanctions the United States is using in this sphere seeking to boost competitiveness and get unfair competitive advantages".
Lavrov added that Russia, India and China have become allies in international formats.
"All the BRICS nations were co-authors of the statement that slams such illegitimate actions and insists that all the states duly respect both the convention and their own liabilities under it," he said in an interview.
"I mentioned BRICS because Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that our three countries are a driving force of such formats as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) now that India has joined it," he said. The fact that we are linked geographically, politically and share view on key problems of the world order and that we are interested in settling all disputes peacefully, interested in a free, open and fair trade-and-economic system, it makes us allies on these matters."
The Russian top diplomat noted that although India is not a permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, it has been elected its non-permanent member more than once. "And in the overwhelming majority of cases, we have common positions. I would like to draw attention to the fact that our countries have consolidated positions during voting on most important issues not only in the Security Council but generally in the United Nations," he stressed.