File photo: Xinhua

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged New Year congratulations on Tuesday, pledging to further cement their countries' close and fruitful partnership.

In his message, Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, extended sincere greetings and best wishes to Putin and the Russian people.

Pointing out that 2019 is an extraordinary year in the history of the development of China-Russia relations, Xi recalled that in the friendly and celebratory atmosphere on the 70th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, he and Putin jointly announced that China-Russia relations had entered a new era, opening a new chapter of bilateral friendship.

"We signed and issued a joint statement on strengthening contemporary global strategic stability, which demonstrates our firm determination to jointly safeguard global strategic stability," Xi added.

Xi said bilateral cooperation in such fields as economy and trade, energy, people-to-people exchanges, and science and technology, as well as at subnational levels, has witnessed a series of highlights and borne rich fruit, not only bringing tangible benefits to the two countries and their people but contributing greatly to world peace and development.

Xi pointed out that 2020 has been designated as the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation between China and Russia, and the two sides will jointly celebrate the 75th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations.

Xi said he stands ready to maintain close contact with Putin, work together to lift bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields to new levels, and jointly safeguard multilateralism and the international system with the United Nations at the core, so as to boost the momentum of the respective development and revitalization of China and Russia, and inject more stability and positive energy into a world that is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century.

For his part, Putin extended his sincere New Year greetings to Xi, and wished the Chinese people happiness and good health.

With joint efforts, Russia and China achieved great progress in 2019 in advancing their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, Putin said.

Putin said that he and Xi met for several times and reached a series of important consensuses, which opened new prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields.

The governments, legislative bodies and various departments of the two countries conducted productive coordination, and the Russia-China east-route natural gas pipeline was completed and put into operation, noted Putin.

 The two sides, he added, successfully carried out the year of local cooperation and exchanges, which further promoted mutually beneficial cooperation at local levels.

Next year, the two countries will embrace another large national themed-year program, namely the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation, he said, adding that the Russian side attaches great importance to the event.

Putin said he firmly believes that with joint efforts, the comprehensive cooperation between Russia and China as well as their constructive coordination on international issues will be upgraded to higher levels.

On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, also exchanged New Year greetings.

In his message, Li said the year of 2019 is of special and great significance to the development of the China-Russia relationship, which has been upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.

The two countries successfully held the 24th prime ministers' regular meeting and reached a series of new consensuses on cooperation, he said.

Li said he will work with Medvedev to give full play to existing mechanisms and platforms and inject more impetus into the common development and revitalization of the two countries.

For his part, Medvedev said the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is at its best in history, and he believes that the two sides will achieve more fruits in cooperation in various fields in the new year.