President Xi Jinping on Monday expressed the hope that major economies in the Group of 20 will continue their partnership of win-win cooperation, support for multilateral free trade and leadership in innovation-driven growth.

Xi made the statement in an interview with Russian media ahead of his departure for a state visit to Russia.

The president said it is significant for the G20 to work as a major international economic cooperation forum, to realize consensuses reached at G20 summits and to orient global growth, as tough challenges remain despite strengthening of the momentum in global growth and improvement of the economic situation in both developed and developing countries.

Expressing expectations for the G20 summit scheduled for Friday and Saturday in the German city of Hamburg, Xi said he hopes that the upcoming summit will prompt the group to continue its partnership of win-win cooperation, which helped it tide over the international financial crisis.

"As long as we can include and tolerate one another, and offer timely help to one another, we will be able to steadfastly keep forging ahead and reach the other shore all together, regardless of whether it is sunny or rainy," Xi said.

As a driving force for the global economy, the G20 should adhere to open development, support the multilateral trade system with the World Trade Organization at the core and prompt trade and investment to continue playing the role as an engine for world economic growth, Xi said.

The world’s richest nations need to take action to achieve what was agreed at the Hangzhou summit, when China hosted the Group of 20 gathering, before passing on the role to Germany, experts said.

The summit will open with officials and scholars saying more effort is needed worldwide to translate into action what was agreed in Hangzhou.

In a push for more concerted action, Chinese leaders have been calling for more support for economic globalization and the introduction of more engines for global growth.

The goal, wrote Foreign Minister Wang Yi in an article published in Qiushi magazine in May, is to ensure that the new engines for growth, including innovation, can effectively tackle looming global economic challenges.

Xi, speaking in January at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, stressed the importance of developing a dynamic innovation-driven growth model, one of systemic collaboration.

Xi said China’s rapid growth has been a sustained, powerful engine for global economic stability and expansion, and the interconnected development of China and that of many other countries had made the world economy more balanced.

Europeans are forming a "joint attitude" toward the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which is expected to stabilize the vast land between China and Europe, according to Michael Schaefer, who served as Germany’s ambassador to China from 2007 to 2013.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote the free flow of economic factors, efficient allocation of resources and integration of markets by enhancing connectivity between areas.

Schaefer hopes Xi will use this week’s state visit to Germany to further explain the significance of this initiative and how it not only benefits China but the rest of the world.

"From the reluctance at the very beginning, the Europeans have started to shape their joint attitudes toward the Belt and Road Initiative,’’ Schaefer said. "I am very vocal in supporting the initiative and Europe needs a more active response.

"I think it is in the common interest of the EU, Central Asia, and China to participate in this initiative and contribute to stabilizing those countries still in a relatively fragile situation."

Xinhua contributed to this story.