China’s top diplomat met with senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday for security talks in Beijing, as the two powers deepen relations that have sparked protests from the West.

Russian state media outlet TASS shared a video of Wang Yi meeting Shoigu on the Telegram messaging platform.

Moscow and Beijing have expanded their military and defense ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three years ago, with Chinese President Xi Jinping one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most important allies on the world stage.

But Beijing has also become increasingly caught between a burgeoning alliance between Russia and North Korea, which has sent troops to Ukraine and this week ratified a historic defense pact with Moscow.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang met with Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, for “strategic security consultations,” Beijing said on Monday.

The two sides were prepared to discuss “important issues related to the strategic security interests of the two countries and enhancing mutual trust,” according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.

Russia has said the talks will address “current international and regional security issues, as well as a wide range of bilateral cooperation issues.”

Shoigu was Russia’s defense minister for the first two years of its offensive against Ukraine, before Putin moved him to the Security Council following a series of military setbacks and criticism from the country’s influential military correspondents.

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Shoigu is also expected to attend this week’s Airshow China, which showcases Beijing’s civil and military aerospace sector every two years in the southern city of Zhuhai.

Russia’s most advanced aircraft, the Su-57 stealth fighter, will make an exhibition flight at the fair.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war and says it will not send lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

However, it remains a close political and economic ally of Russia and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.

Last month, the defense ministers of the two countries pledged to deepen cooperation between their two countries’ militaries.