Obama aide says advancing cooperation benefits U.S., China

Advancing cooperation between the United States and China on bilateral, multilateral and global issues benefits both countries, an aide to U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

"We've approached this relationship knowing that we're not going to agree on everything, but with the strong belief that we benefit when we can advance cooperation," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor, told reporters in a conference call.

"We start from the premise from the beginning of this administration of pursuing a policy of sustained engagement with the Chinese leadership," Rhodes said.

"We do so in the belief that this is the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world given the breadth of issues on which the United States and China have common interests, or at times have differences," he added.

Rhodes also emphasized that the United States welcomes the peaceful rise of prosperous China.

"That can benefit our own interests. It can support U.S. jobs in economic activity. And it can contribute to the stability of the Asia Pacific region," he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off his first state visit to the United States in West Coast city Seattle on Tuesday. Obama will host Xi at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

In the conference call, Dan Kritenbrink, Senior Director for Asian Affairs in the National Security Council, expected the two leaders to discuss such international issues as climate change and global health, as well as a range of bilateral issues, including efforts to further establish confidence-building measures between the two militaries and improve people-to-people interaction.

"I think you could argue that we're cooperating in more meaningful ways, on a more diverse set of issues than ever before," Kritenbrink said, acknowledging that the two countries also face "exceptionally important" and "complex" challenges. Endi