The two leaders discussed maintaining their growing ties amid international instability.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have held a video call to discuss ways to enhance cooperation, maintain strategic stability, and manage their relations with the United States.
The call comes as many Western countries are exploring potential opportunities with China following clashes with US President Donald Trump over tariffs and his demands to take over Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
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Both the British and Canadian prime ministers visited Beijing last month, and the German chancellor is expected to visit this month.
Putin described the foreign policy ties between the two nations as “an important stabilising factor amidst growing turbulence in the world”, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Wednesday.
He said Russia and China would continue close coordination on global and regional agendas, “both bilaterally and within all the multilateral frameworks”, including the United Nations, the BRICS coalition of economies, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where he said the “Russian-Chinese tandem plays an essential role”.
Putin said the two countries had “forged an exemplary comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation”, and reaffirmed Russia’s “resolute support” for their efforts to “ensure the sovereignty and security of our two countries, their social and economic prosperity, and the right to choose their own development path”.
Xi, speaking via an interpreter, called for the countries to work out a “grand plan” to further bilateral relations, which he said were advancing in the right direction.
“The two sides should seize this historic opportunity, maintain close high-level exchanges and strengthen practical cooperation across various fields,” he was quoted as saying by China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
US relations
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin has accepted President Xi’s invitation to visit China in the first half of 2026, the Reuters News Agency reported. Xi visited Russia in May last year.
Putin and Xi exchanged views about their countries’ relations with the United States, Ushakov said, noting they “practically coincide,” including their assessment of Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” initiative in Gaza.
“Russia and China stand for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter,” Ushakov said.
Putin had previously thanked Trump for the invitation to join the Board of Peace and said Moscow would consider it.
China has not commented directly on the Board of Peace, other than to say it was invited to join. Asked about Trump’s new organisation replacing the UN in Gaza, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China will uphold the international system with the UN at its core, no matter how the international landscape changes.