In a New Year message sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the fruitful strides made in relations between China and Russia in 2018.

Xi told the Russian president that he wished to see even deeper bilateral ties now that they had entered "a new era."

The Chinese leader called for an expansion of cooperation through closer high-level exchanges and an intensification of mutual political trust.  

Both China and Russia, he said, had accomplished their domestic political agendas smoothly in 2018, which had a special meaning for the development of the China-Russia relationship.

The two nations also actively dealt with regional and international affairs hand-in-hand and played a constructive role in promoting international justice, peace and stability, Xi said.

The Chinese president vowed to maintain the momentum and make more progress in the coming year so as to bring more benefits to the people of both countries. 

China and Russia will mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2019.

Putin also delivered his New Year wishes to the Chinese nation in a message on the same day.

He highlighted the ongoing substantive political dialogue between the two sides, the dynamic growth of bilateral trade, the successful launch of the reciprocal years of region-to-region cooperation and the good results of coordination between Moscow and Beijing to address regional and global issues, a Kremlin statement said.

Also on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang exchanged messages with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in which they agreed to expand cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, energy, technology, agriculture and people-to-people exchanges.