Context: Recently, the Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that India will participate in the virtual meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping.
Key Points

• The Russian reiteration of support for dialogue between China and India came even though Moscow’s Foreign Minister had said bilateral issues were usually not taken up at RIC.
• The situation in Afghanistan and regional connectivity projects such as the International North South Transport Corridor involving India, Russia and Iran are expected to figure in the agenda.

Significance:

• The Indian decision to go ahead with the ministerial level exchange has created an opening for de-escalation of tension along the Line of Actual Control with the Russian diplomatic sources indicating that they support constructive dialogue over the tension in eastern Ladakh. 
• Russia can act as a bridge in the strained relations between India and China.
• It can act as a platform to discuss and address the areas of cooperation and understand mutual differences.

Russia-India-China trilateral grouping:

• During the 2019 G-20 Summit in Osaka, Russia, India, and China (RIC) held the latest iteration of a trilateral meeting between them.
• RIC as a strategic grouping first took shape in the late 1990s under the leadership of Yevgeny Primakov as a counterbalance to the Western alliance.
• Primakov, a Russian politician and diplomat who was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999, is credited with the idea for RIC.
• The group was founded on the basis of “end[ing] its subservient foreign policy guided by the U.S.,” and “renewing old ties with India and fostering the newly discovered friendship with China.”
• But the idea of meeting at the leader’s level on a more sustained basis has only surfaced over the past couple of years.

Potential of the grouping:

• Together, the RIC countries occupy over 19 percent of the global landmass and contribute to over 33 percent of global GDP.
• All three are nuclear powers and two, Russia and China, are permanent members of the UN Security Council, while India aspires to be one.
• The trio could also contribute to creating a new economic structure for the world.
• They could work together on disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

Importance of RIC:

• RIC brings together three largest Eurasian countries.
• It is a significant trilateral grouping as all three countries are nuclear powers.
• Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council, India aspires to be one.
• In the period of geopolitical transition, it is an effort to renew and rebuild some of these old initiatives as a way to counter the U.S.-led world order.
• RIC can complement India’s continental ambitions and bring about more balance in its strategic autonomy.

Challenges faced by RIC:

• Pakistan axis: China is Pakistan’s ‘all-weather friend' and its CPEC undermines India’s sovereignty, whereas Russia has drawn closer to Pakistan of lately to expand its defence markets. These events present a major challenge in evolving confidence among RIC members.
• China’s aggressive Indian Ocean diplomacy: Efforts by China to dominate the Indian Ocean through its naval installations primarily to encircle India may hamper RIC synergy.
• India China bilateral concerns: Doklam crisis, China’s disapproval for India’s NSG and UNSC membership and opposition towards declaring Masood Azhar as a terrorist in UN act as a hindrance in developing long-term trust in RIC.
• India’s dependence on US and Japan: India shares close relationship with US and Japan on certain issues like technology transfer, membership in global institutions, connectivity between Asia and Africa, Indo-Pacific security and navigation etc. which make it impossible to abdicate this grouping.

Road Ahead

• India is committed to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the border areas and RIC would give the platform for resolution of differences (along the Indo-China Border) through dialogue.
• Moreover, the RIC forms the core of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the BRICS as greater cooperation between China, India and Russia would lead to strengthening of both SCO and BRICS.
• The RIC is a significant multilateral grouping, because it brings together the three largest Eurasian countries which are also incidentally geographically contiguous. RIC, hence provides a worthwhile platform to discuss issues like West Asia, Afghanistan, climate change, terrorism, regional connectivity, tensions on Korean Peninsula, etc.