SAMARKAND, September 15. /TASS/. The leaders of China and Russia maintain effective strategic contacts even amid a pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand.

"Dear President Putin, my dear and long-time friend, I am very pleased to meet again. In this year’s February, we were pleased to celebrate the beginning of spring (according to the Chinese calendar - TASS) and the opening of the Winter Olympics, to discuss grand plans for the development of Russian-Chinese relations," Xi Jinping said.

"Under conditions of a global pandemic we continue to maintain effective strategic contacts, particularly through phone calls," he stressed.

The current face-to-face meeting was the second between the two leaders this year. As Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov noted, Putin and Xi Jinping will discuss further expansion of trade and economic cooperation, restoration and strengthening of humanitarian exchanges interrupted due to the pandemic. According to him, the leaders will discuss the situation in Ukraine and coordination in the SCO and other multilateral platforms.