It marks Putin's first trip outside of former Soviet Union countries since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March - something which impacted his travel to South Africa for the August BRICS summit. Instead he addressed the summit remotely, while Xi, Modi and others were in Johannesburg.

Xi and Putin are expected to hold lengthy formal talks on Wednesday, while Tuesday night Putin is attending a welcome dinner hosted by the Chinese leader, according to China Central Television.

To some degree, the international spotlight and pressure surrounding the Ukraine war has been taken off Putin as the world's attention has shifted to rapidly moving events in Gaza and Israel. 

Xi and Putin had last met in the Chinese capital in early 2022, just three weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine was launched on Feb. 24.

Both are now expected to find common ground on criticizing Israel's actions, and will likely renew calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Over the weekend China's foreign ministry blasted Israel's actions as collective punishment against Palestinians.

"Israel's actions have gone beyond self-defense and it should heed the call of the international community and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Saudi Arabia counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in a Sunday call.

In a separate call he told Turkey's FM: "The exercise of the right of self-defense should abide by international humanitarian law and should not be at the expense of innocent civilian casualties."