RIC group meeting ends in disappointment for India

ISLAMABAD: There was disappointment in New Delhi where despite continued efforts by the Modi government, the trilateral meeting among India, China and Russia did not include naming Pakistan nor the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the joint communiqué released on Tuesday.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the 15th meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) group which took up several regional and international issues with special focus on Afghanistan.

Though terrorism was condemned and there was reference to take decisive and concrete action against globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities listed by the UNSC, no direct reference was made to Pakistan. There has been no reaction from Islamabad nor likely to be.

Sushma Swaraj, according to the Indian media, did in a statement point out that ISIS, Taliban, LeT and al-Qaeda are directly undermining international peace and security and endangering ongoing efforts to strengthen global economy.

The RIC communiqué stressed that those committing, organising, inciting or supporting terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with the obligations under international law including the principle of, as it said, extradite or prosecute as well as the applicable domestic legislations.

The three countries called for cooperation to prevent and counter terrorism and radicalisation, combat the spread of terrorist ideology and propaganda, stop sources of terrorist financing, prevent travelling of and the supply of arms to terrorists and to dismantle terrorist infrastructure.