China and Russia pledged on Monday to strengthen bilateral energy cooperation to jointly uphold energy security as part of efforts to promote their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era.

President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin made the pledge in congratulatory messages delivered to the third China-Russia Energy Business Forum, which opened online and offline on Monday, with sub-sessions in Beijing and Moscow.

Xi said in his message that since the start of this year, both countries have advanced overall strategic coordination and all-around pragmatic cooperation with new fruitful achievements while celebrating the 20th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.

Noting that energy is an important field for the two countries' pragmatic cooperation, Xi said the bilateral energy trade has increased despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The countries' major energy cooperation projects have made progress and they have expanded new areas of collaboration in an innovative manner, he added.

In the first three quarters of this year, China-Russia energy trade reached $34.9 billion, accounting for 34.3 percent of the total bilateral trade, according to the National Energy Administration. In addition, Chinese and Russian enterprises are actively engaged in cooperation in the oil and gas chemical industry, natural gas power generation, the transmission and distribution power grid, renewable energy, and scientific and technological innovation.

Xi said that the outstanding achievements in bilateral energy cooperation have demonstrated broad prospects for the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era.

China will work with Russia to build an even closer partnership of energy cooperation, jointly uphold energy security and cope with the challenges of global climate change, he said.

Putin hailed energy cooperation between Russia and China, saying the countries' comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era is at an unprecedented high level.