Interview: French expert says cooperation between China, U.S. indispensable

The coordination and cooperation between China and the United States are indispensable in a world faced with global challenges, David Gosset, a Paris-based global affairs analyst and a Sinologist said.

"Beijing and Washington are well aware that China-U.S. synergies are needed to stabilize the situation of the Korean peninsula, to guarantee security when terrorism threatens it in a large Afro-Eurasian space, and beyond," Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum and the New Silk Road Initiative, told Xinhua in a recent written interview.

The cooperation between the two countries is needed to make sure that "any dispute or conflict happening in any corner of the world does not escalate in a way which would significantly affect global economy and peace," he said.

Thus the direct interaction between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump "is of the highest significance," said the expert.

The Chinese president, who is on a state visit to Finland, will travel to Florida, the United States, for a meeting with the U.S. president on Thursday and Friday.

That will be the first meeting between Xi and Trump as the heads of state of the two biggest economies in the world.

The expert, also director of the Academia Sinica Europaea (CEIBS), said that through the upcoming meeting the two leaders are creating the conditions to be connected by a certain level of personal trust.

Given the complexities of the China-U.S. relations, they may differ in many affairs, "but both sides will know how to find convergence on the most important economic and political issues and they will be rational enough to avoid extreme divergence in case of tensions and crises," he said.

"Operating in the 21st century globalized world system, the distance between Xi and Trump is, in any case, much less than the one which separated Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon who nevertheless managed to reduce 45 years ago a considerable strategic mistrust," Gosset said.

"With time and wise leadership, the U.S. and China could also go much beyond tactical agreements," said the expert.

Nixon visited China in 1972. On Feb. 28 that year, the two countries released the Shanghai Communique, laying the foundation for the two countries to resume diplomatic ties.

"Being directly or indirectly impacted by the evolution of the China-U.S. relations, the entire world is observing the interactions between Xi and Trump," Gosset said.

The expert pointed out that Europe Union in particular should pay much attention to the Xi-Trump meeting as the bloc seems to have come at a crossroad with concerns over rising populism and Brexit. Endi