Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a video conference yesterday with his Indian and Chinese counterparts, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Wang Yi. The meeting had been postponed because of the pandemic, and was to coincide with the events to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II which led to the foundation of the United Nations. Formally the meeting was to discuss the founding principles of the UN and their importance, but with the recent border clashes between China and India, it was about to be canceled a second time when the Indian Foreign Minister at first indicated he would not attend. Nonetheless the meeting did take place, after the Indian Foreign Minister said he decided to attend at the personal request of Lavrov, the meeting’s host.
Speaking with the press after the conference, Lavrov said Russia will not be mediating between India and China over the recent border clash. “We never had a goal to help India and China develop their bilateral ties,” Lavrov said, according to AP. “India and China have every opportunity to tackle and solve any problems in relations between them.”
