Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that Moscow desired friendly relations between India and China even as he slammed the Quad grouping for what he called playing one country against another.

“We are interested in these two (India-China) great nations to be friends. It was the initiative of my predecessor to create a troika of Russia, China and India which culminated in the BRICS formation. My feeling is that the more they meet, the better,” Lavrov said at the Raisina Dialogue here.

Lavrov was in New Delhi to attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting which concluded yesterday.

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He said Russia has good relations with both India and China. Ties with India were characterised in official documents signed by the two leaders as a specially privileged strategic partnership. ”I don’t know whether any other country has the same status on paper officially,” he added.

Asked about Russia’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine, Lavrov hit out at the United States, saying why no one was asking Washington what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While alleging that the US operated on double standards, Lavrov said: “They don’t remember when Serbia was bombed. Joe Biden (US President) being a Senator at that time was bragging that I promoted this approach. When Iraq was ruined as a state, a few years later, Tony Blair said it was a mistake.”

While hitting out at Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Lavrov said that nobody was asking him when he was going to negotiate.

“Everyone is asking when Russia is ready to negotiate. Nobody asks Zelenskyy when he’s going to negotiate. Last year, Zelenskyy signed a document making it a criminal offence to negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is present. Can you ask him what he’s doing?” he said.

Lavrov said that Moscow has never engaged in playing one country against another but it was “being tried by some other outside players” in the context of the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy.

“We never engage in playing any country against any other country but this is, unfortunately, being tried by some other outside players in the context of so-called Indo- Pacific strategy, using Quad, not for economical purpose but trying to militarise it,” he said.

“The idea promoted by our American friends of ASEAN plus Quad is openly aimed at ruining East Asia Summits. In other words, it means East Asia Summits minus China and Russia,” Lavrov said.

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