Beijing and Moscow have ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years, and their strategic partnership has grown closer since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Russian Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu in the Chinese capital on Sunday in the latest round of "strategic communication", Beijing's foreign ministry said.

Wang told Shoigu that China and Russia must work together to uphold multilateralism in a time of "turmoil", and "advocate for an equal and orderly multipolar world".

China is willing to work with Russia to "deepen strategic coordination, and push China-Russia relations to break new ground in the new year", Wang told Shoigu, according to the ministry's readout.

The meeting in Beijing came as the United States says it is close to brokering a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia's top economic envoy met US officials in Florida this week for surprise talks on the war.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

But it is a close political and economic ally of Russia and NATO members have branded Beijing a "decisive enabler" of the war -- which it has never condemned.