BEIJING, (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. He also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They discussed a plan to boost supplies to China as tensions rise with the West.

According to a Moscow broadcast of their talks, Putin stated to Xi that Russia had made a new agreement to supply China an additional 10 Billion cubic metres of natural gasoline.

Russia, one the leaders worldwide in hydrocarbon supplies has been strengthening its relations with China. However, this is against the backdrop to Moscow’s dispute with the West regarding Ukraine and other issues.

Moscow’s broadcast showed Xi and Putin sitting side-by-side at a table inside a Beijing state guesthouse. They were surrounded by masked aides.

Putin said to Xi, “I’d like to say thank you for inviting me to the Olympic Games opening.” This is an immense task, as we know. It is a huge job, and I know that my Chinese friends are doing it well.

The report states that Xi believed the meeting had given life to the relationship.

The threat of Russian invading Ukraine has also overshadowed the Olympics already affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

In protest of China’s record on human rights, the United States and its allies announced that they would boycott the Games diplomatically. China denied all abuses.

China had shown footage of a Chinese state TV camera showing a jet with Russian and Chinese flags. It was followed by jets carrying the Serbian and Mongolian flags. Aleksandar Vucic (Serbian president) and L. Oyun Erdene (prime minister), both from Mongolia are likely to be present at the ceremony’s opening later Friday.

State media reported that Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also arrived in Qatar.

The Chinese foreign ministry reported that Russia and China had coordinated their positions regarding Ukraine at a meeting of their foreign ministers Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov in Beijing.

China was warned by the United States that it would be punished if the Chinese tried to bypass export control restrictions placed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Ned Price, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, stated that “we have an array of instruments that we can deploy when we see foreign firms, including those from China, doing their very best to backfill U.S. Export Control Actions, to evade these, or to get around them,” during a routine news briefing.

Beijing was attempting to prevent the coronavirus from infecting its citizens, and had been avoiding foreign guests since before Lavrov.

Russian troops have gathered at the Ukrainian border in thousands, raising suspicions of an imminent invasion. Russia insists that it is not planning one. Russia requested NATO to stop Ukraine joining NATO and for Russia to withdraw from eastern Europe.