Foreign Ministers of Russia, India, China stress importance of 'Common Development'

Sputnik news agency and radio 22:01 GMT 10.09.2020

MOSCOW/NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov along with his Chinese and Indian counterparts, Wang Yi and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, emphasized the importance of common development and cooperation between their countries to facilitate the global economic growth and stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministers held a meeting in Moscow earlier in the day amid a continuous border conflict in the Ladakh province between Beijing and New Delhi.

"The Ministers exchanged views on further strengthening of Russia-India-China trilateral cooperation as well as topical issues of international and regional importance, in the spirit of mutual understanding, friendship and trust. The Ministers noted that common development and cooperation of the three countries is conducive to promoting global growth, peace and stability," the sides said in a joint statement.

The ministers noted approvingly the work done within the framework of the trilateral cooperation between their countries, including the first teleconference the countries' sanitary and epidemiological services on Tuesday.

"The Ministers agreed that the three countries, with strong scientific and industrial capacities, could make a significant contribution towards mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," the statement read.

The trilateral consultations format between Russia, India, and China, known as RIC, which started in the early 2000s, serves the purpose of transitioning from a unipolar world, currently dominated by the United States, to a multipolar one with various centers of influence.