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Full video by Times Radio:

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Some have suggested that RIC still holds value for India. Given the uncertainty created by Trump, engaging with Russia and China allows India to keep its options open. Some scholars suggest RIC could also help India's position on Afghanistan, Arctic shipping and other key issues.

Russia is battling the Western-led alliance in Europe while China is doing so in East Asia. India has been clear: it is not an anti-Western power. And India's closest strategic partnerships are in the West. And it may no longer share the same worldview as Russia and China.

So far, Indian diplomatic sources have been clear that there are no plans for an RIC summit. And there's a key reason for that. When RIC began, it was non west but not necessarily anti-West. But over the last 20 years, Russia and China have become anti-Western powers.

But now, Russia wants to try again. For one thing, India and China have agreed to normalise their relationship after working out a deal on the border. And Donald Trump has created uncertainty for all three countries. With Russia and China ready to revive RIC, India faces a choice.

But why are you hearing about the RIC triangle now? . Periodically, Russia has been keen to revive this trilateral group. But there hasn't been much interest. India-China border tensions since 2020 have been a serious obstacle to actually making the RIC work.

Border issues between the two countries started up in the 2010s. Because of all this, the RIC never became a force to balance the West. After the leaders meeting in 2006, the next meeting took place only in 2018 . Although Foreign Ministers and other meetings kept happening.

RIC was also displaced by other rising forums like BRICS, which also included Brazil and South Africa. India also met with Russia and China at meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Also as the years went on, tensions between India and China increased.

While RIC was non-Western, it was not anti-Western. This was a different time, in which Putin's Russia wanted cooperation with the West. India was also actively trying to rebuild its relations with America. So the idea of challenging the Western-led order never got off the ground.

But despite this cooperation, the group really didn't achieve much. It never developed any real level of coordination on key issues like terrorism, trade and geopolitics. Why? . First, each country valued its strategic partnerships with Western countries.