The foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) would hold a luncheon meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Moscow, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow on a four-day visit to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the SCO of which both India and China are members. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is the host of the meeting of SCO foreign ministers being held in the Russian capital from Wednesday to Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also hold bilateral meetings with relevant member states of the SCO and attend a luncheon for the RIC foreign ministers, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here.
Under the RIC framework, the foreign ministers of the three countries meet periodically to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of their interest.
Zhao, however, said he was not aware of the timing of the RIC foreign ministers' meeting.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers of the grouping in 2005. Both the countries were admitted as full members of the bloc in 2017.
