“On July 17, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with state councillor and foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement

NEW DELHI: Russia has quietly nudged China to expedite the ongoing disengagement process along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.

The current situation along the LAC and stability in the region is understood to have figured when Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov held telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last week, ET has reliably gathered. It has been further learnt that Lavrov and Wang discussed how to settle “global issues exclusively through dialogue”.

“On July 17, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with state councillor and foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. “The ministers discussed a number of current issues on the bilateral and international agendas, including preparations for the summit of UN Security Council permanent members, global security, developments in various regions of the world, integration processes in Eurasia, and SCO and BRICS activities under Russia’s chairmanship this year.”

“The conversation was held in a trust-based and constructive manner and confirmed the consistency of opinions on all the topics discussed as well as Moscow and Beijing’s commitment to settling global issues exclusively through equal dialogue and a search for a balance of interests while respecting the principles of the UN Charter,” the statement added.

This comes amid a flurry of dialogues between Delhi and Moscow in recent weeks on a slew of regional and international issues. ET has learnt that these series of conversations between Russia and China, and India and Russia must be viewed in the context of re-establishing Eurasian stability, which has been under stress since PLA killed Indian military personnel in the Galwan Valley on June 15.

ET had recently reported that while PLA has pulled back troops involved in the June 15 fatal clash, it is still not clear if those troops have been rotated out from the sector as part of the disengagement process. The disengagement process has been progressing and physical verification is expected this week.

As the current president of SCO and BRICS, Russia is of the opinion that better ties between India and China are imperative for effective outcomes from these groups’ summits this year and their future. These forums along with RIC also serve as tools for confidence building measures between Delhi and Beijing.

Russia has emerged as a key political player in the current Sino-Indo stand-off. While Russia is not mediating in bilateral matters between India and China, it has been involved in some quiet diplomacy to defuse tensions and has assured emergency defence supplies to Delhi.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Moscow, the only trip undertaken abroad so far by any Indian minister since the outbreak of COVID-19, has been significant to enable emergency defence supplies to Delhi. Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned President Vladimir Putin on the day of completion of the vote on constitutional amendments in Russia, during which they discussed supply of key defence platforms, including the S-400 missile defence system.