India, Russia to stay on same side to counter China: Expert

Foreign policy expert Phunchuk Stobdan urged India and Russia to stay on the same side, or else China might take both of them on a ride.

While talking to ANI, Stobdan said, "Russia being an old partner of India will have to share its concern with us. India will need to discuss with other shareholders (about the recent global developments)."

He acknowledged the fact the Indo-Russian summit is taking place in the backdrop of the recently-concluded Indo-China summit in May, as he said that internally neither India nor Russia trust China.

"Russia must have played some role in Indo-China summit."

He also talked about the scheduled visit of President Putin to India this year and other international summits, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and the BRICS summit to be held later in the year, as he urged both India and Russia to put a joint agenda in the SCO summit.

Stobdan highlighted that India had skipped the One Belt, One Road summit held in Beijing last year.

He further said that it is imperative for India to maintain stable relations with both Russia and China as he said, "Xi Jinping has become leader for eternal, President Putin will going to stay for a very long time and if don't have a communication with them then I think PM Modi is also going to face elections next year and he will undergo a test."

Xi Jinping had become the President for an indefinite period after the abolishment of the Presidential term limits. Further, Putin was recently re-elected to be Russia's President for the fourth time.

He further said that the recent summit will help to give "RIC (Russia, India, China) more teeth. Now both Pakistan and India are members of SCO we better work together or else it will become like SAARC."

India was recently declared to be a permanent member of SCO, a fact mentioned by Prime Minister Modi himself during the recently-concluded one-on-one talks with Putin.

Stobdan also spoke about China's attempt to expand its control over territories around Indo-China border as he said, "China has not yet claimed control over Arunachal Pradesh but has contained itself till Yümai which lies in the Tibet autonomous region."

Prime Minister Modi is currently on a one-day visit to Sochi, as part of which he held one-on-one talks with President Putin and is further scheduled to go for a boat ride.