Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin’s meeting in Beijing on Thursday left no question of how closely the Chinese and Russian leaders are aligned in their vision for the world – and on bolstering the “powerful driving force” of their autocratic double act.

The two vowed to deepen their strategic partnership, and took aim at a United States they painted as a destabilizing aggressor.

China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin on Thursday pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.

Xi greeted Putin on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where they were hailed by marching People's Liberation Army soldiers, a 21-gun salute on Tiananmen Square and children waving the flags of China and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his effort to resolve the Ukraine conflict at a Beijing summit Thursday, where the two leaders reaffirmed a "no-limits" partnership that has grown deeper as both countries face deepening tensions with the west.

Putin’s two-day state visit to one of his strongest allies comes as his country’s forces are pressing an offensive in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began.