BENAULIM (GOA): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nepal PM PK Dahal Prachanda had a trilateral meeting at the Brics venue, leading to much speculation about the outcome of the “unprecedented chance meeting”.The three leaders were together in the waiting lounge of the resort which hosted the summit. While Nepal authorities said Prachanda proposed trilateral cooperation with India and China, the MEA described the meeting as purely coincidental.“It was just entirely coincidental that in the leaders’ lounge, all three were present at the same time. The bilateral between Nepal and China had already ended, so I don’t know on what basis people are calling it a trilateral and all that. It is perfectly normal in a multilateral setting for leaders to be together in a lounge on the sidelines somewhere else. So I don’t think you need to read too much into that,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.That Prachanda had officially proposed trilateral cooperation was revealed in a statement by his secretariat in Kathmandu. The proposal was welcomed by both India and China, it claimed. During the “trilateral meeting”, Prachanda reminded that during his previous tenure he had emphasised on the need for trilateral strategic partnership among Nepal, India and China.“Nepal lies in between two giant neighbours — India and China. We wish to reap benefits of this geographical speciality by working as a dynamic bridge between the two countries,” Prachanda said, according to the statement.It also claimed that the Indian and Chinese leaders “welcomed the proposal floated by Nepal and gave their consent to it”. It cited Xi as saying that Nepal could serve as a bridge between India and China, and that geography of any country would not play a decisive role in terms of many things like development.