Lavrov says India is being forced by the QUAD and the US into military operations

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that India is being forced by the US and QUAD into military operations, even though it was formed for trade purposes. QUAD alliance, which consists of the United States, Japan and Australia, are organising naval and military exercises.

"We spoke to our Indian friends back then and they told us that their interest in joining the Quad is exclusively of a trade of economic nature and cooperation in other peaceful areas," said Lavrov on Friday. He said that India must have realised the militarisation agenda of the trade alliance.

Lavarov is optimistic about reviving the trilateral forum between Russia-India-China (RIC Troika), "Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this RIC troika."

Lavrov said that the format was established by the Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as a valuable forum for trade and economic cooperation. It has already conducted 20 ministerial meetings at the level of heads of the foreign ministries, trade and financial organisations.

Lavrov is reported to travel to India in June. He argued earlier that the West, especially the US, intends to create antagonism between India and China. The renaming of Asia-Pacific as Indo-Pacific was a strategic move to isolate China in the region.