Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing coinciding with the start of the Winter Olympic Games. It was President Xi’s first face-to-face meeting with another world leader in nearly two years due to the pandemic. In a joint statement, Putin and Xi called for an end to NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and blasted the newly formed ”AUKUS” military alliance between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Xi and Putin also discussed a deal on a new pipeline that would ship Russian gas to China.