Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit on Thursday in St Petersburg. Photo: AFP

 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Thursday vowed to safeguard the interests of emerging markets and push for reform in international financial systems when they met before the Group of 20 (G20) summit in St Petersburg to discuss the promotion of economic growth and the creation of job opportunities.

Both leaders have attached great importance to bilateral cooperation, Xi said, expressing the hope that the two countries can accelerate cooperation in major strategic projects in such fields as energy and aviation, and continue to deepen military cooperation to meet new threats and challenges.

On global issues, Xi said that in the face of profound and complicated changes in the international situation, China is willing to cooperate closely with Russia in strengthening macro-economic policy coordination, boosting reforms of global economic and financial systems, fighting against trade and investment protectionism and safeguarding the interests of emerging markets.

Putin said Russia is willing to strengthen coordination with China at the G20 summit to push for achievements in major issues such as world economic growth, international financial system reforms and safeguarding the interests of emerging markets.

He also called on BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to beef up coordination and cooperation.

The BRICS group will contribute $100 billion to a fighting fund to steady currency markets destabilized by an expected pullback of US monetary stimulus, in which  $41 billion will come from China.

After their talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents, including an agreement between Russian gas giant Gazprom and China's State energy firm that will help seal a mega-deal for the delivery of 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China.

Analysts believe Xi and Putin's meeting is of great importance as they represent the interests of emerging markets in the G20 summit when the global economy appears to be shifting back to advanced economies while emerging countries are at risk of slowing due to a tighter US monetary policy.

"China and Russia are both emerging markets facing economic slowdown while struggling to gain more say in organizations like the IMF and meetings like the G20 summit," said Wang Lijiu, a research fellow of Russian studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

Qu Xing, director of the China Institute of International Studies, agreed. "As the world's second largest economy and one of the fastest growing economies, China, together with other emerging countries, has contributed a lot to the world economy especially during this difficult financial crisis. Now, as those days ease away, it is important that emerging markets remain active members in G20 and that all G20 members continue collaboration," Qu told the Global Times.

Both China and Russia warned on Thursday that the end of the US Federal Reserve's bond-buying program could have a profound impact on the global economy and urged caution.

Zhu Guangyao, China's deputy finance minister, urged the US to be "mindful of the spillover effects and work to contribute to the stability of the global financial markets and the steady recovery of the global economy."

"The US is the world's biggest economy and in adjusting its policy, the US should fully consider the fact that the global economic recovery is still very weak. If it exits too abruptly and too fast, it will harm the world economy and in turn its own economy," Fan Jianping, chief economist with the State Information Center, a government think-tank, told the Global Times.

Zhu also played down the possibility of a bailout for any country in financial difficulty when briefing reporters ahead of a meeting of the BRICS emerging markets caucus during the G20 talks. He signaled that China will stop turning to stimulus programs to deal with any market fluctuations, saying that they only serve to distort the market.

Both the IMF and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have said this week that the momentum of the global economy is shifting away from emerging markets and back to advanced economies.

"The emerging economies have a lot of potential that should not be ignored," said Wang.

There are no plans for Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G20 summit, a Chinese spokesman said Thursday, adding that China was not to blame for current "difficulties" between the two East Asian powers, AFP reported.

Agencies contributed to this story