India, China and Russia will hold trilateral talks in the virtual mode on Friday on issues including Afghanistan and other regional issues. External affairs ministers of the three countries will take part in this annual event.
Giving details of the upcoming dialogue, the Ministry of external affairs (MEA) said here on Thursday Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's will hold talks in the virtual format.
Incidentally, Jaishankar and Lavrov are likely to take part in the first ever two plus two talks between India and Russia in the first week of December alongside President Vladimir Putin’s summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. The two plus two dialogue will see foreign and defence ministers of the two countries holding extensive talks on strategic and defence ties.
As regards the talks on Friday, officials said the meeting, being held under the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral framework, will be chaired by Jaishankar.
"The 18th meeting of the foreign ministers of the Russian Federation, Republic of India and People's Republic of China will be held in digital video-conference format on November 26," it said.
The three foreign ministers are expected to deliberate on regional issues of mutual interests including the situation in Afghanistan. "The foreign ministers are expected to discuss further strengthening of RIC trilateral cooperation including exchange of views on various regional and international issues of importance," the ministry said.
India took over the chairmanship of the RIC after the last meeting of the trilateral in Moscow in September last year. Following Friday's meeting, Jaishankar will pass on the chairmanship of the RIC to the Chinese foreign minister for the next one year.