The Russian and Qing Empires had a number of things in common; first of all, they had a common enemy in Mongols, who used to attack both states. As a result, they sought to cooperate to contain the Mongol attacks Secondly, the two states had similar forms of governments, retaining their traditional precepts, whereby in the Qing Dynasty, the emperor had absolute power, with “mandate from heaven”, while in Russia, they practiced absolutism, in which the tsar had absolute power backed by divine right granted to him by the Russian Orthodox church.
In addition, initially both states were Gunpowder empires. This means that they were a land-based empire that could not engage in any naval warfare. The two empires opened up to Western European ideology and trade. The East-West contacts between China and Europe, and Russia with Western Europe increased significantly during the earl Qing and Russia dynasties. They were both interested in military might, and Kangxi, the ruler of the Qing dynasty appreciated the importance of conquering and amassing military power.
Peter of Russia also transformed the army into a professional unit, with well trained and paid soldiers. They changed their status from gunpowder empires, into militaries that could engage in both land and naval warfare. The expansionist tendencies of both empires and the similarities of their quest led them to have many conflicts. They had border disputes as they sought to increase their territories. By the time of the heydays of the Qing, Russia had expanded its territory from Eurasia east to the Pacific coast.