MOSCOW/BEIJING, May 16 (Reuters) - Russian President

Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing early on Thursday for talks

with counterpart Xi Jinping that the Kremlin hopes will deepen a

strategic partnership between the two most powerful geopolitical

rivals of the United States.

China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in

February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he

sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the

deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

By picking China for his first foreign trip since being

sworn in for a six-year term that will keep him in power until

at least 2030, Putin is sending a message to the world about his

priorities and the strength of his personal ties with Xi.

In an interview with China's Xinhua news agency, Putin

praised Xi for helping to build a "strategic partnership" with

Russia based on national interests and deep mutual trust.

"It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic

partnership between our countries that determined my choice of

China as the first state that I would visit after taking office

as president," Putin said.

"We will try to establish closer co-operation in the fields

of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear

energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and

other innovative sectors."

Informal chats between the leaders and senior officials of

both sides held over tea and dinner on Thursday are expected to

be key to the two-day trip.

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said those talks

would range over Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade.

Putin's newly appointed defence minister, Andrei Belousov,

as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council

Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Ushakov will also attend, along with

Russia's most powerful CEOs.

It was not immediately clear if Gazprom CEO Alexei

Miller would go to China as he was on a working visit to Iran on

Wednesday.

CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS OF TIES

Putin, 71, and Xi, 70, will participate in a gala

celebration of 75 years since the Soviet Union recognised the

People's Republic of China, which Mao Zedong declared in 1949.

Xinhua confirmed Putin's arrival for a state visit and the

expected talks with Xi, while dozens of large Russian and

Chinese flags fluttered around Tiananmen Square amid police

patrols.

Some commentaries have hailed the pair's "great power

diplomacy".

The event is the top trending item on the Chinese social

media platform Weibo, with 1.4 million search requests.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and

Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while U.S. President

Joe Biden says this century will be defined by an existential

contest between democracies and autocracies.

Putin and Xi share a broad world view, which casts the West

as decadent and declining, just as China challenges U.S.

supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic

biology to espionage and hard military power.

Putin will also visit the northeastern city of Harbin, which

has historic ties to Russia. A mall devoted to Russian-made

goods from about 80 Russian manufacturers opened on Thursday,

the China Daily said.

China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia

in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed

sanctions on both countries, particularly Moscow, for its

invasion of Ukraine.

Western governments say China has played a crucial role in

helping Russia withstand the sanctions and has supplied key

technology that Russia has used on the battlefield in Ukraine.

But China, once Moscow's junior partner in the global

Communist hierarchy, is by far the most powerful of Russia's

friends globally.

Putin's arrival follows a mission to Beijing late last month

by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in part to warn

China's top diplomat Wang Yi against deepening military support

for Russia.