Xi wanted to meet Zelenskyy, Modi beat him to it. ‘Opportunist’ jibe is China’s frustration

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has irked China, whose President Xi Jinping was trying to project himself as the peacemaker-in-chief. Chinese experts called Modi an 'opportunist' and a 'deceiver' after he met with Zelenskyy in Japan. Modi's assurances to Ukraine - while sidestepping the economic impact of the war - would be uncomfortable for Beijing because it shows New Delhi is maximising its national interest. But Beijing shouldn't be a factor in New Delhi's equations and its agnostic and humanitarian approach to resolving the Ukraine war must continue. "I don't see this as a political…