US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk the grounds at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, June 8, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Frequent meetings centering on new type of relationship

In the past two years, the two presidents have met on several occasions, with high attention paid to the new type of major-country relationship.

In November 2014, Xi held talks with Obama, who was paying a state visit to China after attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing.

Before the state visit, they met in June 2013 for an informal summit at the Annenberg Retreat, California, where they agreed on building a new type of major-country relationship.

They reaffirmed their commitment in St. Petersburg, Russia, in bilateral talks on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in September 2013.

And again in March 2014, on the sidelines of a Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, the two leaders agreed to maintain close contact and jointly push for the new type of major-country relationship.