Moscow keen to reignite Russia-India-China cooperation – Lavrov

Multipolarity will continue to grow in large part due to BRICS and Africa, the Russian foreign minister has said

Moscow is keen to relaunch trilateral cooperation among Russia, India, and China under the RIC format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.   

While addressing the media about Moscow’s diplomatic achievements in 2025, Lavrov added that multipolarity will continue to grow in the global order largely due to the vital importance of BRICS countries and African nations.

“We will bring back this association. It was the forerunner of BRICS. It is there…nobody has abandoned it,” Lavrov, while referring to RIC. 

“It cannot be put back into the framework of the bipolar or unipolar world. There are many growth points I mentioned-China, India, Brazil, Africa...going through a second renaissance,” he added.

❗️Moscow Will 'Bring Back' The Russia-India-China Association - The Forerunner Of BRICS - 'Nobody Abandoned It' pic.twitter.com/uyzFNaiucL

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) January 20, 2026

Last year, senior officials from Moscow, New Delhi, and Beijing called for a revival of RIC. 

The geopolitical troika was first conceptualized by Russian statesman and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in the 1990s to challenge the unipolar world order established by the US. Although the idea was later subsumed into BRICS, the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China have held 18 meetings in the RIC format.

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Lavrov said Africa is still being exploited by neo-colonialism but that awareness about this is growing.

The Russian foreign minister added that the so-called ‘rules-based order’, used by the collective West for years, is now being rewritten by just one country – the US.

The comments come as Washington has been increasingly adopting a hegemonic approach to global affairs, as evidenced by its intervention in Venezuela and threats to annex Greenland.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the international situation has been “increasingly deteriorating,” citing old conflicts reigniting and new emerging flashpoints. Many countries are facing the principle of “might makes right,” Putin said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last year that the old world order that the West was accustomed to is coming to an end but the shape of what will come next is still uncertain.