China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Beijing

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Xi and Putin hold talks just days after US President Donald Trump made an official visit to China.

A meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin has started in Beijing, Chinese state media reports.

Xi welcomed Putin on Wednesday to the Chinese capital, shaking hands with the Russian leader outside the Great Hall of the People in advance of their talks, video by Russian media showed.

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Before entering the Great Hall, Putin and Xi walked down a red carpet, rolled out to greet the Russian leader, and stood as a military band played their two national anthems.

Putin began the talks by hailing “strong, positive” momentum in cooperation between Russia and China, according to Russian media.

“Even amid unfavourable external factors, our cooperation and economic cooperation is showing strong, positive momentum,” Putin told Xi.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the visit by Putin and that of the recently concluded trip by US President Donald Trump are very different as the Russian leader is marking 25 years of Sino-Russian friendship and Putin has visited China dozens of times, and met with Xi on more than 40 other occasions.

“So this visit will really be about deepening existing coordination and cooperation,” Yu said.

“We are expecting that the two sides will update each other on the situation in the Middle East as well as Ukraine. No doubt Xi Jinping will also talk to Putin about what was discussed with Donald Trump last week,” Yu said.

Putin is being accompanied by a large delegation of Russian businesspeople and government leaders, Yu said, adding the Kremlin had announced the two leaders will sign some 40 different agreements covering everything from the economy and tourism to education.

“But I think for Putin the main topic of discussion with Xi Jinping is going to be on energy security,” Yu said.

“Since the war in Ukraine, any gas sales that were previously heading to Europe that is all dried up and Russia is in desperate need of revenue to replace that, especially since we are in the fifth year of the Ukraine war,” she added.