A meeting of immense scope

The last few years have been tough on US-China relations, and distrust over long-term intentions has grown on both sides. But now that a new leadership has taken over the reins in China and the Barack Obama administration has started its second term in the US, how can things be set onto a better path? Anything even remotely like a Cold War in Asia would be unwelcome in the region and reduce the possibilities of effectively managing the issues ranging from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran to climate change.

Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping will meet in California for private talks on June 7-8. This meeting comes amid a stream of high-level Sino-US contacts - Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon to Beijing, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to the Shangri-La Dialogue, where he met People's Liberation Army representatives, and the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in July in Washington.

But the meeting of the two presidents in California is unique. Never before have American and Chinese leaders sat down outside their respective capitals for a wide-ranging dialogue that will continue for many hours and is not tightly constrained by the requirements of an official visit. The fact that the two leaders have previously spent only 90 minutes with each other - when Xi was still vice-president - makes the meeting all the more significant. And the fact that both are confident enough to have this type of meeting is good news.

One of the most important results of this meeting would be each leader gaining a far better understanding of the other - his key concerns, goals, political considerations and fears. Potentially the most significant take-away from the California meeting would be each leader saying to himself: "I know that person, and I feel confident I can do business with him." Personal chemistry is important in inter-state relations. It determines in part what each judges would be feasible to do with the other. Hopefully, the chemistry between Obama and Xi will be positive.

The key issues on the meeting's agenda are likely to be the DPRK, cyber security, climate change, the Middle East, expansion of military ties and promoting stability in Asia. Bilateral and multilateral economic and trade matters will also come into the mix. Wherever possible, the California meeting should aim to provide direction on how both sides can move beyond what they have done together in the past.