A military alliance between Russia, China and India, the fastest growing Asian economies, is not possible, says Aleksandr Lukin, Director of the East Asia Research Centre, at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs.

Commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement that Russia, China and India are not planning to form a military alliance to counterbalance the US, Aleksandr Lukin said:

"I think it is quite clear for everyone that there cannot be a military alliance. The main idea is actually to harmonise the relations between the three countries. Russia and China used to have rather bad relations but now Russia-China relations are much better, though China and India still have a lot of problems. They have a border issue that is not resolved. Bilateral trade is growing, but it is not growing that fast. This is very far from a military alliance, of course.