Even as relations between the two countries are strained due to tension on the border for the last more than two years, China has said it is ready to boost ties with New Delhi besides Moscow. Beijing also said the three countries are “major emerging countries with notable influence”.

This assertion was made by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday.  She said India, Russia and China are emerging “major powers” with notable influence and Beijing was ready to boost ties with Moscow and New Delhi.

She made this claim while responding to TASS Agency’s question about Russia’s new foreign policy concept. “China, Russia and India are all major emerging major countries with notable influence. As the international and regional landscape is facing profound and complex changes, we are ready to strengthen communication with the international community, including Russia and India, and send a positive signal to the world about defending true multilateralism and jointly responding to global challenges,” according to the Spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in India, Wang Xiaojian’s tweet.

She further said, “China and Russia are dedicated to growing a new type of major-country relations featuring mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. The bilateral relationship does not target and is not affected by any third party.

Last month, President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to Russia.

“The two heads of state drew a blueprint for the future course of China-Russia relations. The two sides are comprehensively following through on the important common understandings between the two leaders. We are fully confident about the future of China-Russia relations.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the new Foreign Policy Concept last Friday, which said strengthening and deepening relations with China and India is a diplomatic priority for Russia.

The 42-page document singled out ties with China and India, stressing the importance of “the deepening of ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centres of power and development located on the Eurasian continent”.

India and Russia maintained a close strategic, military, economic, and diplomatic interaction during the Cold War. Both Russia and India refer to this alliance as being unique and privileged.

The strategic partnership between India and Russia is based on five main pillars -- politics, defence, civil nuclear energy, counter-terrorism cooperation, and space. India and Russia celebrated the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

According to the document, Russia will continue to build a particularly privileged strategic partnership with India with a view to enhancing and expanding cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly States and their alliances.

“In order to help adapt the world order to the realities of a multipolar world, Russia intends to make it one of its priorities to enhance the capacity and international role of the interstate association of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the RIC (Russia, India, China) and other interstate associations and international organizations, as well as mechanisms with strong Russian participation,” read the document.