Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterpart US Secretary of State John Kerry hold a joint press conference following their meeting at the State Department on Thursday morning during Wang's visit to DC. Sun Chenbei / China Daily

China and the United States are committed to building a new type of major power relationship by expanding concrete cooperation and holding candid talks on differences, according to the nations' top diplomats.

Visiting Washington, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is ready to work with the US to make preparations for more high-level engagement and push forward mutually beneficial cooperation.

"We look forward to working with the US to ensure that we will be able to translate the defining feature of this new model of major country relationship - namely non-conflict and confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation - into all aspects of the China-US relationship to bring benefits to our both countries and beyond," Wang said on Thursday at a joint press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department.

The new type of major country relationship was reaffirmed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama when they met in Sunnylands, California, in early June.

Wang, who is on his first trip to the US since becoming foreign minister in March, said he believes there is tremendous potential for the two nations to work together to further expand and deepen their cooperation.

On Thursday afternoon, Wang met US Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Foreign Affairs Committee Director Ed Royce.

Biden said he and President Obama both believe that the success of humankind in the 21st century largely depends on how the two countries deal with their relationship and how the two peoples cooperate in tackling with common global challenges. He said he is very optimistic.

Kerry said the US has a vested interest in China's growing prosperity and partnership, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but also around the world.

He described the new type of relationship as based on "practical cooperation and constructive management of differences".

"We recognized the need to avoid falling into a trap of seeing one another as strategic rivals," said Kerry, who has met with Wang several times in the past months.