Trump highlights US-China ties at state dinner with Xi

US President Donald Trump highlighted improving relations between the United States and China during a state dinner honoring his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

"As the leaders of our two nations, President Xi and I both understand that we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we've never gotten along better," he said.

Trump framed the remarks as a reflection of friendship between the two countries, despite longstanding differences between Washington and Beijing.

During the dinner, he also presented Xi with a gift created by an American artist.

“In that spirit of friendship, it's my honor to present President Xi with a gift made by an extraordinary American artist, one of the greatest in the world and designed in personal collaboration with Melania and myself,” he said.

In his address following Trump's speech, Xi said the two leaders held "sincere and in-depth exchanges" and reached a common understanding on a number of issues.

"This has added new substance to the constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability and provided new strategic guidance for China-US relations," he said.

He described the exchange of state visits by the two presidents in less than six months as historic in bilateral relations.

"Today, we have come to another historic juncture for China-US relations. President Trump has pledged to make America great again and lead the American people in making significant strides. China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation, and Chinese modernization has kept breaking new ground," Xi said.

"These two goals are both ambitious and can surely be mutually reinforcing. China and the United States must act as responsible major countries, meet the expectations of our people, keep pace with the trend of our times, and explore a new approach for major countries to get along with each other," he added.