The three RIC (Russia, India, and China) countries today reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that Afghan territory was not used to threaten or attack any other nation and called for the formation of a truly inclusive government that represented all the major ethnic and political groups in the war-torn country.

The foreign ministers of the RIC countries today held a day-long meeting which was chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi led their respective delegations at the meeting.

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The three ministers expressed concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and called for providing immediate and unhindered humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. They emphasised the central role of the UN in Afghanistan, a joint communique issued at the end of the meeting said.

In his opening remarks, Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s continued commitment to foster closer dialogue and cooperation among the three RIC countries. ”I believe that our cooperation in areas like trade, investment, healthcare, education, science & technology and politics etc could significantly contribute to global growth, peace and stability,” he added.

Asked at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) media briefing if the Ladakh military stand-off between India and China figured at the meeting, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said usually bilateral issues were not taken up at such meetings.

The joint communique said the three ministers condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reaffirmed that terrorism must be comprehensively countered to achieve a world free of terrorism.

They called on the international community to strengthen UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation by fully implementing the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

The ministers stressed that those committing, orchestrating, inciting or supporting, financing terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with existing international commitments.

Expressing their solidarity with those who were negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministers underlined the importance of a timely, transparent, effective and non-discriminatory international response to global health challenges including pandemics, with equitable and affordable access to medicines, vaccines and critical health supplies.

They also called for strengthening the policy responses of WHO in the fight against Covid-19 and other global health challenges. They called for making Covid-19 vaccination a global public good.

They agreed that cooperation among the RIC countries will contribute not only to their own growth but also to global peace, security, stability and development.