RIC trilateral meet to discuss regional, global issues

Foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) are expected to deliberate on a range of key regional and global issues when they hold a key meeting of the trilateral grouping here on Monday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have already confirmed their participation in the meeting.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said a number of regional and global issues will be deliberated at the RIC foreign ministers meeting.
The RIC is expected to discuss ways to effectively deal with the threat of terrorism and India is likely to push for naming Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammed in the communique to be issued after the talks, citing a similar move by the BRICS grouping in September.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will have separate bilateral meetings with both Wang and Lavrov before the trilateral talks.
Asked about the bilateral meeting between Wang and Swaraj, Kumar said India expects that the deliberations will cover all bilateral as well as regional and global issues of importance.

It will be the first high-level visit from China to India after the Dokalam standoff.
Asked whether China's opposition to India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group will be raised, Kumar did not give a direct reply and said efforts to get entry into the key bloc will continue.
"Our effort in this regard will continue.... This is a continuous process. You do not give up because it has not happened once," he said.

Asked whether there was enhancement of Chinese troops near Dokalam, the MEA spokesperson said India has not noticed any any new development at the face-off site and that the status quo continues in the area.
The RIC foreign ministers' meeting was planned for April here but it had to be postponed as Wang could not confirm his participation due to scheduling problems.
There were media reports then that Wang had put off his visit to India to protest New Delhi's decision to allow the Dalai Lama to travel to Arunachal Pradesh. However, China had dismissed those reports.
The RIC meeting is likely to review the regional security scenario, developments in the Gulf region, situation in Afghanistan and ways to contain challenge of terrorism among others.

Asked about reports of the Siang river, which originates in Tibet and flows through Arunachal Pradesh, turning black in the past two months owing to some construction activities by China, Kumar said the government was ascertaining facts in the matter.
He said there are institutional mechanism between India and China to resolve issues of common concern, and once the government gets the facts about the issue, it will consider whether to take up the issue with the neighbouring country or not.
"Let us not jump to conclusion. Let us first ascertain the details and facts in the matter, which we are doing," he said.