BEIJING  China's Premier Li Qiang proposed closer three-way ties with Russia and Mongolia at a meeting on Wednesday with counterparts from his neighbours held on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, state media said.

The three have grown closer in recent years, with China and Mongolia both rolling out the red carpet this year for Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Moscow did for China's Xi Jinping in 2023, before Beijing then hosted Mongolia's president.

"China is ready to work with Russia and Mongolia to further enhance mutual trust, strengthen co-ordination and promote deeper ... trilateral co-operation," Li, China's second-ranking official, said, according to the official news agency, Xinhua.

He was speaking to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Mongolia's Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene.

Mongolia is not a member of the SCO, a China-led Eurasian security bloc, having chosen instead to be an observer state since 2004. Still, China continues to gently nudge its smaller neighbour towards joining the grouping of 10 nations.

The resource-rich, landlocked country is also courting officials from the United States, which has promised to invest in its mining and heavy industry.

But Washington was critical of Ulaanbaatar's decision to host Putin in September, ignoring a warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Such a warrant normally obliges the court's 124 member countries, including Mongolia, to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to the Hague for trial if he sets foot in their territory.

Mongolia is on the planned route of a major pipeline that Russia wants to build to carry 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year from its Yamal region to China.

In a separate meeting with Mishustin, Li said China was willing to strengthen trade and energy ties with Russia, Chinese state media added.

  - Reuters