Russian President Vladimir Putin smiled and waved enthusiastically to his Chinese counterpart during virtual talks on Tuesday.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed to take his country’s ties with Russia to a new level this year in a video conference with counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, hours after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing the two countries’ close ties, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president.

Russian elites are growing increasingly concerned about the dominance of a pro-China clan within the Kremlin and Beijing's "colonial" attitude towards Moscow.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed ties with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, as the two face a more geopolitically assertive US government led by Donald Trump, who criticised the Kremlin's war against Ukraine on the first day of his second term as president.

Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping mere hours after President Trump was sworn in, pledging deepening cooperation.

Trump should reflect on the ramifications of his comments about Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.

In the 1.5-hour video call, the leaders discussed the need to “cope with the uncertainty of the external environment”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday in which he proposed further developing their strategic partnership just hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president.

China's leader, Xi Jinping, video-called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to discuss cooperation between Russia and China, the Russian news agency "RIA Novosti" reports. During the conversation, Putin and Xi discussed the development of the Russian-Chinese partnership and strategic interaction.

President Donald Trump's economic warfare and "respect equals fear" philosophy will be key tenets of his administration's foreign policy approach as he begins his second term in the White House.