Nepal, July 30 -- The debate over Russia-India-China (RIC) troika is back in the news, with the Russian Foreign Minister proposing that "cooperation would be in their interests and would contribute to peace and security", raising the prospect of revitalising the trilateral mechanism that could challenge the US-led world order. Russia has long shown interest in making this format work among these three important partner countries to promote confidence-building measures, eliminate distrust and suspicion, resolve outstanding disputes and replace confrontation with dialogue and negotiation.

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov first floated the proposal for a RIC triangular formation during his visit to India in December 1998. The urge fo...