Russia is quite eager to revive a trilateral cooperation arrangement with India and China under what’s called the RIC format, that could be seen as a countermeasure by the top three nations among the world’s powers to counter a growingly assertive US under President Donald Trump.
Why are Russia’s remarks on RIC significant?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments in this regard gained attention due to the troubled global order, triggered by Trump’s aggressive posturing against all nations, be they friends or foes, with threats of trade tariffs and military interventions, as was seen recently in Venezuela and warnings on Greenland.
What did Lavrov say on Russia’s diplomacy?
During a media interaction on Tuesday (January 20), Lavrov talked about Russia’s diplomatic wins in 2025. He said multipolarity would gain traction in the global order in the coming years, largely due to the significance gained by multilateral forums such as BRICS, and the Global South, especially African nations.
“We will bring back this association. It was the forerunner of BRICS. It is there…nobody has abandoned it,” Lavrov, while referring to RIC, said. “It cannot be put back into the framework of the bipolar or unipolar world. There are many growth points I mentioned…China, India, Brazil, Africa…going
through a second renaissance,” he added.
When did the RIC meet last?
On September 1, 2025, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet informally as RIC (Russia-India-China) members in Tianjin in China, ahead of the SCO Summit opening session in a display of Eurasian camaraderie and sending a powerful message amid Trump’s approach that has disrupted geopolitics.
This was Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, after the 2020-24 Ladakh conflict between the two nations’ militaries. Then, the three leaders took each other’s hands and were immersed in an engaging conversation.
As the three leaders mingled, one interpreter translated Putin’s words, which began with “We three friends…” Modi was seen enjoying the conversation and clasped Putins hands for a second time on the occasion.
How US sees BRICS and RIC?
Though Trump has never mentioned RIC directly in his remarks, he did threaten to impose sanctions and tariffs on BRICS nations, if the grouping’s nations went ahead with discussing de-dolarisation for their bilateral trade, and as a replacement currency for international commerce.
RIC nations are the strongest link in BRICS and hence, the lack of reference to RIC does not indicate that Trump views the trilateral grouping favourably. Yet, based in Trump’s anger at BRICS, it could be interpreted that RIC nations were the targets of his acerbic comments.