Sergey Lavrov: “China, Russia, and India clearly have everything they need to promote partnership and to derive mutual benefits from the areas where our interests overlap”

Photo: TV-screen

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions from Moscow. Kremlin. Putin television programme, September 7, 2025.

Question: Should we be paying attention to the West insisting that today’s meeting – the triple handshake between President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and President Xi Jinping – is a show, a message to the world?

Sergey Lavrov: The handshake is to show that three great powers representing three great civilisations are aware of their shared interests in a number of areas. It does not mean that these interests are 100-percent the same, but China, Russia, and India clearly have everything they need to promote partnership and to derive mutual benefits from the areas where our interests overlap.

The interests lie in growing our respective economies, addressing social issues, and improving the well-being of the people. All of this fits perfectly into the general concept of the RIC troika predicted by the former Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov in the mid-1990s. Since then, it has effectively taken shape, and has held many meetings. We are in the process of putting together another troika format at the level of foreign ministers. I am certain that we will consider convening a special summit on a later occasion.

Question: The handshake gave rise to an elephant-dragon-bear image.

Sergey Lavrov: Elephant-dragon-bear means the animal life is incredibly diverse. Our three peoples possess a creative imagination. They chose their national symbols based on real life, not popular vote.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs