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11/21/2024 05:57:20 pm

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China Turns Down Trilateral Defense Talks with Russia, India: Report

Russia, India And China Foreign Ministers Attend 13th Trilateral Meeting In Beijing

(Photo : Getty Images) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) and Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj (R) attend the press conference after the 13th trilateral meeting of Foreign Ministers from Russia, India and China (RIC) at Diaoyutai State guesthouse on February 2, 2015 in Beijing, China.

China has reportedly refused to make trilateral ties with Russia and India, sparking speculations in New Delhi that the move was made putting Pakistan into consideration.

According to Economic Times, the turn down was officially made last week, a time when the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh continued even though it received strong opposition from Beijing. The meeting between China, Russia, and India was supposed to take place on April 25, a day before Arun Jaitley, the Indian minister for International Security Defense, is expected to visit the security meet.

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Russia was keen that the three countries should conduct trilateral talks to discuss security cooperation. India accepted the proposal after carefully examining all the details, but Beijing refused to participate.

China is allegedly avoiding to send wrong signals that it was attempting to sap its special defense relationship with Pakistan, Economic Times noted although no specific reason was given.  

Russia said that the proposed trilateral talks flows from the fact that there is already an existent RIC (Russia-India-China) forum among foreign ministers. And the move is only a logical extension in attempting to strengthen security outside US mechanisms.

Meanwhile, China, Pakistan, and Russia are reportedly close to forming an alliance to stabilize Afghanistan, in which all three nations found a common threat on the Islamic State terror group.

"These fears have now opened up the possibility of an alliance between Pakistan, Russia and China in an unprecedented development that will shape the future of this volatile region," The Express Tribune reported, noting that Pakistan and Russia were likely compelled to unit in apprehensions that the US would not help in stabilizing the war-torn Afghanistan.

Russia has already hosted two meetings with officials from both countries. Another meeting is scheduled later this month. All meetings are made to discuss the Afghanistan problem.

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