The deal would make Moscow the country’s largest gas supplier amid Beijing’s trade frictions with Australia and as Qatar, a major Chinese supplier becomes a non-NATO ally. The new gas deal, which would be settled in Euro as both countries diversify from the US dollar, came as Russian President Vladmir Putin met his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing where the two leaders reaffirmed their strongest ties in decades. Both leaders also condemned NATO expansion and the West’s ‘Cold War mentality’, a main reason behind mounting tensions with the West from Moscow’s and Beijing’s perspective. The bilateral relations are expected to continue to deepen although mutual suspicion and mistrust run deep in both Moscow and Beijing.