WASHINGTON -- Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Thursday proposed some major guidelines for China and the United States to promote sound and steady growth of bilateral relations in the new era.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (L) meets with US President Barack Obama at the White House, Washington, the United States, on March 12, 2009. [Xinhua]

Speaking at a luncheon meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Yang expressed satisfaction that the two countries have worked together and ensured a smooth transition of bilateral relations in the past 50 days since the new US administration took office.

The two sides have established good working relations at the top level and between various government departments and maintained close consultation and coordination in bilateral and multilateral areas, he said.

"A good beginning is half the success," Yang said, noting that this good start has laid the groundwork for the further growth of China-US relations.

"We should now set our sight on the longer term and draw up a good blueprint for China-US relations in the coming years. We should make concerted efforts and promote sound and steady growth of our relations," he said.

To do this, the minister proposed some guidelines which he believed could help advance China-US relations in the coming years.

First, he said, both sides should adopt a strategic and long-term perspective and keep the relations on the right track.

China and the United States now have more common interests and a broader foundation of cooperation on a series of major and pressing issues facing today's world, according to the minister. The strategic significance and global influence of China-US relations have further increased and their relations in the new era should be broader and deeper.

The minister believed that the two countries should work together in an all-around way to raise bilateral relations to a new and much higher level of cooperation in the 21st century on the basis of mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences and cooperation for win-win results.

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