The 17th Russia-India-China Trilateral Academic Conference

The 17th Trilateral Conference of Russian, Indian and Chinese Scholars was held at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), Beijing on 10 – 11 September 2019.

The Chinese participants included Qi Zhenhong, President, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), Rong Ying, Vice President, CIIS, Ma Jiali, Director, China Reform Forum, Ding Xiaoxing, Director, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, Wu Dahui, Director, China Association for International Friendly Contact, Cai Pengming Deputy Director China Association for International Friendly Contact, Wu Shan, Deputy Director China Association for International Friendly Contact, Li Ziguo, Acting Director Dept. for European-Central Asian Studies, CIIS Lan Jianxue, Deputy Director Dept. for Asian-Pacific Studies, CIIS, Han Lu, Deputy Director Dept. for European-Central Asian Studies, CIIS, Bai Lianlei, Associate Research Fellow Dept. for European-Central Asian Studies, CIIS, Jia Ding, Assistant Research Fellow CIIS, Zhang Jiaolong, Assistant Research Fellow, Dept. for International and Strategic Studies, CIIS, Cheng Shujing, Research Assistant CIIS and Wang Siyuan Research Assistant CIIS.

The Russian delegation was lead by Sergei Uianaev, First Deputy-Director, Institute of Far Eastern Studies (IFES) and the other participants included Anatoly Klimenko, Vice-Head, Center for Strategic Studies of Northeast Asia and the SCO, IFES, Alexandr Mokretskii, Senior Researcher, Center for Study & Forecast of Russia-China Relations, IFES and Vladimir Petrovskiy, Head Researcher, Center for Study & Forecast of Russia-China Relations, IFES. Officials from the Russian Embassy in China including Grigory Logvinov, Ambassador-at-Large Russia MFA, Maxim Novoselov, Senior Counselor, Russian Embassy in China, Slava Volodchenko, Second Secretary, Russian Embassy in China and Timur Chernyshov, Third Secretary, Russian Embassy in China were in attendence.

The Indian delegation lead by Ashok K. Kantha Director ICS, Former Ambassador of India to China also consisted of Ajai Malhotra, Distinguished Fellow & Senior Adviser, Former Ambassador of India to Russia, The Energy and Resources Institute, Alka Acharya, Honorary Fellow, Professor, ICS Jawaharlal Nehru University, Biswajit Dhar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Veda Vaidyanathan, Research Associate ICS. Officials from the Indian embassy in Beijing including Acquino Vimal, Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy in China and Nikhil Vivekananda, Second Secretary, Indian Embassy in China were also present. 

The RIC Trilateral Academic Conferences have traditionally provided a space for scholars to ideate, take stock of progress and understand each other's prespectives on a range of issues. It compliments the existing nature of cooperation among RIC states, which include meeting of state leaders on the sidelines of G20, cooperation in the security, financial sector, young diplomats meetings, arts festivals and joint efforts on cybercrimeamong others. While this was encouraging, participants agreed that there was a need to take the deliberations further and extend the multi sector, multi-dimensional cooperation into newer areas. Conversations not only surrounded the idea of building an RIC identity, but it also lead to the idea of creating a vision for RIC. Participants argued that the RIC has a responsibility to the new emerging order and should play a stronger role in cultivating norms and building institutions. The participants agreed that the world is in transition and a new equilibrium is yet to emerge. However, the biggest challenges facing the world today are trans-national in character ranging from terrorism to pandemics to climate change. The nature of these challenges mean that they are more amenable to resolution in a just, democratic and multipolar world. The various cultural exchange programs among the RIC countries including film festivals, agreements to work on art restoration, promoting each other's language etc was brought forth. Similarly, the flow of tourists and students among the RIC countries was also discussed. 

The conference concluded with Amb. Ashok K. Kantha, head of the Indian delegation, extending an invitation to the Russian and Chinese delegation to take part in the 18th RIC Trilateral to be held in New Delhi in 2020. The heads of Russian and Chinese delegations accepted the invitation on behalf of their colleagues and confirmed their participation at the 18th RIC Trilateral. 

A detailed report of the conference proceedings will be uploaded to the website shortly.