Beijing and Moscow have vowed to strengthen bilateral ties. The two world leaders held an earlier meeting where they discussed development of the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as current matters on the international and regional agenda.

President Xi is also Putin's guest of honour for Friday's Victory Day military parade, where he will be joining almost twenty leaders attending the parade.

“We are willing to safeguard the global multilateral trading system and the stability and smoothness of industrial and supply chains and make greater contributions to promoting the development and revitalization of the two countries and safeguarding international fairness and justice," Xi said.

Putin also welcomed the transfer of Chinese technology to Russia, adding that Moscow has become the largest importer of Chinese cars.

“Today, we will sign an updated intergovernmental agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments, which I am sure, will have a positive impact on the shaping of a more favourable business environment and will give a serious impulse to the development of our economic cooperation," Putin said.

Russian Direct Investment Fund Chief Executive Officer, Kirill Dmitriev says they value the partnership with China, especially the investment sector.

“China is a very important partner for Russia. We are jointly doing lots of investments in lots of sectors including infrastructure and technology, and jointly we invested for example, in the first railway bridge between Russian and China, that is cutting the distance for our cargo by 700 kilometres," Dmitriev said.

A number of world leaders are expected to attend the celebrations including Burkina Faso's Leader, Ibrahim Traore, who has faced constant attempts on his life.

---SABC---