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.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pledged to take China-Russian relations to a “higher level”, hours after Donald Trump took office. The pair spoke over the phone on Monday and discussed future relations with the United States, the war in Ukraine and Taiwan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a video call hours after Donald Trump was sworn in yesterday, pledging to bring bilateral ties to "greater heights", according to state media on both sides.

MOSCOW/BEIJING (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed on Tuesday how to build ties with Donald Trump, prospects for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and Moscow's firm support for Beijing's position on Taiwan.

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

China, Russia seeking to deepen ties to ‘new level’ after Trump inauguration Heritage senior research fellow Steve Yates joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the benefits of bolstering AI investment and how China's Xi and Russia's Putin are working to deepen bilateral ties after Trump's inauguration.