Jaishankar may host RIC Foreign Ministers meet on sideline of SCO conclave in Goa in May

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar may host his counterparts from Moscow and Beijing, Sergey Lavrov and Qin Gang, for a Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meet on the sideline of a conclave of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa in the first week of May.

Lavrov and Qin are likely to attend the meeting of the SCO foreign ministers on May 4 and 5. Moscow has suggested to New Delhi that the opportunity might be explored to hold a meeting of the RIC Foreign Ministers on the sideline of the SCO conclave.

New Delhi, according to the sources, is not averse to the idea of holding the RIC meet in Goa, as it is likely to help India maintain its strategic balance even as its G20 presidency has come under the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine war, with the western nations using the meetings of the premier forum for international economic cooperation to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s government in Moscow for its military aggression against the East European nation.

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In addition to the G20, India is also holding the chair of the SCO this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to host the SCO summit in New Delhi before hosting the G20 summit on September 9 and 10.

The G20 is dominated by the US and other western nations. The SCO is on the other hand is led by China and Russia and is perceived as a counterweight to the NATO. India and Pakistan joined the SCO in 2017, taking the number of its members to eight. Iran is likely to join the SCO as a full member this year.

The Government of India will host a virtual conclave of the SCO energy ministers virtually on Tuesday, following the meetings of the sports and youth affairs ministers and the tourism ministers in New Delhi and Varanasi later this month. Modi’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, will host his counterparts from the SCO nations on March 29 next.

The relations between New Delhi and Beijing hit a new low after the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020. But New Delhi did not refrain from participating in the RIC meetings. Jaishankar on June 23, 2020 and on November 26, 2021 joined Lavrov and the then Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in virtual RIC meetings.