BRICS Summit 2026: Russia-India-China grouping never formalised

The BRICS New Delhi Summit has revived talk of an old idea: the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral, first conceived in the late 1990s and never formally launched. With Western tariffs pushing Moscow and Beijing to seek common ground with Delhi, and India-China ties cautiously thawing, the chorus for RIC is growing louder. But India has stayed non-committal, any revival depends on "mutual convenience", raising the real question: would formalizing RIC actually challenge India's careful balancing act?