Pitching Nepal as a “dynamic bridge” between India and China, Prachanda floated a proposal for trilateral strategic ties to Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Nepalese media reported on Sunday.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ during the trilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit yesterday expressed Nepal’s desire to act as a “dynamic bridge” between the two Asian giants.
The report about the “trilateral meeeting” was reported by Nepal's The Himalayan Times. India, meanwhile, said both Xi and Prachanda were waiting in the leaders' lounge when PM Modi also reached there as he had to go with all the BRICS leaders for an informal dinner, turning the bilateral into a 'chance trilateral'. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup in Goa termed the episode "entirely coincidental". "It was just entirely coincidental that in the leaders' lounge, all three were present at the same time. The bilateral meeting between China and Nepal had already ended. So, I don't know on what basis people are calling it a trilateral meeting. It is perfectly normal in a multilateral setting for leaders to be together in a lounge or on the sidelines or somewhere else," Swarup said.