US-China relations likely to shape the 21st century, claims Obama

US President Barack Obama, opening two days of high-level talks with China, said the discussions could lay the groundwork for a new era of “sustained co-operation, not confrontation” in a relationship likely to shape the 21st century.

Obama said that Washington and Beijing needed to forge closer ties to address a host of challenges from lifting the global economy out of a deep recession to nuclear proliferation and global climate change.

“I believe that we are poised to make steady progress on some of the most important issues of our times,” the president told diplomats from both countries assembled in the vast hall of the Ronald Reagan Building.