China’s new leader Xi Jinping arrived Friday in Moscow on his first foreign trip as president, to cement ties between the two countries by inking a number of energy and investment accords.

China's new leader Xi Jinping arrived Friday in Moscow on his first foreign trip as president, to cement ties between the two countries by inking a number of energy and investment accords.

A key deal expected to be signed between Xi and his counterpart Vladimir Putin will see Russia ramp up oil supplies to China, which is the world's biggest energy consumer.

The Chinese leader, who arrived for a three-day visit, chose Russia for his first trip abroad after China this month completed a power handover which will see Xi preside over the world's second-largest economy for the next decade.

Xi highlighted the importance of his country's relationship with Russia, which is rooted in shared communist ideology.

"China and Russia are the main and most important strategic partners," Xi said in an interview with Russian media, adding that he was looking forward to his meeting with Putin.

"In many ways we speak a common language," he said on the eve of his Moscow trip.

Putin for his part praised the two countries' cooperation to promote "a more just world order."

"The fact that the new Chinese leader is making his first foreign visit to our country confirms the special nature of a strategic partnership between Russia and China," he said in an interview released by the Kremlin ahead of Xi's arrival.

"Essentially we are talking about a new epoch in relations between Russia and China," said Sergei Sanakoyev, a veteran China expert with links to the Russian government.

Both Syria and North Korea are set to be high on the day's agenda. But the economy is expected to be at the forefront of the talks between Russia, the world's largest energy producer, and China, the world's largest energy consumer.

Russia, which wants to diversify its energy markets away from Europe, needs to finalize a potentially huge gas deal which could eventually see almost 70 billion cubic meters of gas pumped to China annually for the next 30 years.

Russia's biggest oil company Rosneft is expected to sign an agreement to ramp up supplies to China from the current 15 million tonnes a year.

Sanakoyev, general secretary of the Russia-China Chamber for Promotion of Trade in Machinery and Innovative Products, said the two countries will also sign a preliminary agreement allowing Chinese companies to help develop Russia's remote Far East.

Dmitry Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said China would also seek to strengthen overall relations to boost its international standing.

Russia and China are also members of the BRICS grouping of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, India and South Africa and which will hold a summit in South Africa next week attended by both Putin and Xi.