China-US summit in Beijing vital to new-model ties

WASHINGTON - The upcoming summit between Chinese and US presidents in Beijing will affirm the progress in building a new type of major-country relationship between the two powers and guide its expansion in the coming years, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai said here Tuesday.

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Cui cited the goal to build new-model ties, envisioned by Xi Jinping and Barack Obama when they met in June last year at the Annenberg Retreat in California, as the most important progress made in bilateral relationship over the years.

"This is a strategic thinking" with both the reality and the future in mind, Cui told Chinese press in a joint interview, ahead of Obama's scheduled travel to Beijing on Nov 10-12 for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and a state visit to China, his second in five years.

The ambassador said both sides have been doing a lot to prepare for Obama's upcoming visit and summit with Xi, and the two leaders will be able to have an "in-depth exchange of views" on top of formal interactions associated with a state visit.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described US-China relationship as "the most consequential" in the world, calling for greater cooperation to tackle major challenges facing today's world.

"The US-China relationship is the most consequential in the world today, period, and it will do much to determine the shape of the 21st century," the top American envoy said in remarks delivered at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. "That means we have to get it right," he added.

Cui said Obama's visit and meeting with Xi will cover all aspects of bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues, with focus on deepening and expanding areas of cooperation, demonstrating outcomes and showing resolve and capability to manage differences in a constructive way.

"We cannot allow problems and differences existing between the two countries to upend the entire bilateral relationship," he stressed, saying Beijing and Washington are seeking to make positive energy outweigh negative energy in their dynamic relationship.

A normal state in US-China relations was, is and will be a growing convergence of common demands and interests amid a lot of lingering differences, he explained.

"Due to these differences, we need all the more such a framework of a new type of major-country relationship to sort them out in a proper way on the basis of mutual respect, so as to avoid conflicts and confrontation, and seek win-win cooperation," he remarked.

Cui said China is seeking to develop and transcend itself, not to challenge and overpower others, so as to make its new-model ties with the United States different from those between other powers in the past which were characterized by the fight for hegemony.