Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has made a big claim about the Quad. India is among the member countries of the Quad along with the US, Japan and Australia. He said on Friday that India had joined the Quad alliance only for the purpose of trade, while the countries of the group were already trying to conduct naval and other military exercises. He claimed that now the member countries of the Quad and the US are pressuring India to join the military alliance. However, there has been no response from India to Sergei Lavrov's statement. China sees the Quad as an opposing group from the very beginning.
'What did India tell Russia'
"We spoke to our Indian friends at that time and they told us that their interest in joining the Quad is only of an economic nature, for trade and cooperation in other peaceful areas," he said. "In practice, other countries of the Quad are already trying to conduct naval exercises and other military exercises, not under the Quad," he said.
What did Lavrov warn?
Lavrov warned that these activities are part of a larger agenda to militarise the group. "They are trying to involve all four countries in these exercises. And I am sure that our Indian friends, they can clearly see this provocation," he said.
China will reactivate RIC
The Russian foreign minister also said the time was right to restart the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral mechanism. He cited a reported reduction in tensions at the border between New Delhi and Beijing. "Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to defuse the situation at the border, I think it is time to restart this RIC trio," Lavrov said while addressing an international conference in Perm, Russia. Lavrov described the RIC format, originally established at the initiative of former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, as a valuable platform, having previously been held more than 20 times at the level of foreign ministers and in the economic, trade and financial spheres.
Russia engaged in improving relations between India and China
He said, "I would like to reaffirm our interest in seeing the three trilateral format resumed. Russia, India, China, which was established many years ago on the initiative of Maxim Primakov. And since then it has held ministerial meetings more than 20 times, not only at the level of heads of foreign ministries, but also between other economic, trade and financial organizations of these three countries. And when India and China are finally agreeing on how the situation on the border can be resolved, I think it is the right time for us to resume dialogue in this format."
What did Russia say about India earlier?
Earlier, Lavrov had directly blamed the West for trying to "create tensions" between India and China. He criticised the strategic re-branding of the Asia-Pacific as the "Indo-Pacific" and warned that such moves were designed to isolate China and sideline ASEAN. "This is a policy that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently again described as 'divide and rule'," he had said.
