Chinese President Xi Jinping called for Beijing and Moscow to offer each other a "helping hand" in the face of external challenges, at talks with his counterpart Vladimir Putin in Tajikistan yesterday.

The two leaders met in the Central Asian nation's capital Dushanbe ahead of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a six-nation regional security group that also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

China and Russia - at times close allies during the Cold War - have been forging closer relations through energy deals in the face of spiralling diplomatic challenges