A meeting with Jinping on August 31, a conversation with Putin on September 1 — thanks to Trump, it seems the “troika” will finally come together
This will be a rare occasion when the heads of all three nations come together after a long gap. The key question is whether they might discuss reviving the old dialogue mechanism — RIC (Russia-India-China).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold high-level bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping on August 31 and Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 1, 2025. These crucial talks will take place on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in China. The discussions come at a time when India is locked in a major tariff dispute with the United States.
This will be a rare occasion when the leaders of all three nations will come together after a long gap, raising the question of whether the old dialogue mechanism — RIC (Russia-India-China) — could be revived.
The China visit is part of a two-nation tour that also includes a stop in Japan. The meetings are linked to ongoing efforts to improve India-China relations, which remain overshadowed by their 3,488-kilometer undemarcated border, as well as to reinforce India’s decades-old strategic partnership with Russia. A central theme is India’s foreign policy approach, which, as one analyst noted, has always been guided by the principle of strategic autonomy.
In response to U.S. tariffs, not only China and Russia but also Brazil have raised objections, which some believe could pave the way for BRICS members to channel their opposition through the RIC framework. However, India has not shown any concrete commitment to this mechanism in recent times.
At the same time, due to Washington’s role in so-called peace initiatives, Moscow is currently avoiding the kind of aggressive stance against the U.S. that it has taken in the past. Beijing, meanwhile, believes that if India, Russia, and China were to reunite, they could potentially redraw NATO’s map. Still, reviving this organization would depend on India’s consent. Russia has already stated its intent to work with India and China to restart the RIC “troika” alliance.
The idea of this forum was first proposed in 1998 by former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, but it only came into being in 2001. Like other multilateral platforms, the forum offers each country an opportunity to better explain its foreign policy. However, it has not been very effective in building trust between India and China.
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