Washington attracted worldwide attention Wednesday when Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, held talks at the White House.

According to a joint statement issued after the talks, China and the United States are committed to working together to build a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit in order to promote the common interests of both countries and to address the 21st century's opportunities and challenges.

As mankind enters the second decade of the 21st century, Hu's visit is sure to enhance the strategic mutual trust and to guide strategic cooperation between the two countries.

The joint statement is a new guide to the development of China-U.S. relations and bears extraordinary and far-reaching significance.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the two countries on the whole have witnessed steady growth in their relationship.

Before this visit, Hu and Obama had met seven times in two years. Meanwhile, leaders from both governments and legislatures have also swapped visits and held meetings. Exchanges between high officials have reached an unprecedented level in terms of frequency, scope and depth.

Under the framework of the positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between China and the United States, Hu and Obama, through Wednesday's summit, had extensive consultations on issues of politics, the economy, technology, humanities and culture.

They also worked closely on major regional and international issues. Those have all expanded the strategic content and raised the global influence of China-U.S. relations.

Looking back, the China-U.S. relationship is like a sailing ship on the sea. As the guidelines for bilateral relations, the three Joint Communiques defined the starting point of the cruise route. Each important meeting between and each statement issued by current and former leaders from the two countries have laid different marks on the route. From the past until now and into the future, these marks ensure that China-U.S. relations move safely no matter what the international situations are.

Mutual respect and mutual benefit are the buzzwords in Wednesday's joint statement, which add something new to China-U.S. relations.

This answers the calls of history and meets the demands of the times.

Mutual respect determines what level a state-to-state exchange can reach. It lays the foundation for stable and sound China-U.S. relations. Throughout history, only a relationship of mutual respect can achieve sustainable development.

In today's world, countries are becoming more and more mutually dependent. They rarely stand or fall alone. No single country can achieve prosperity without international cooperation. The zero-sum and rivalry mentality can not survive in the current globalized world. Therefore, it has become a common responsibility for both Chinese and U.S. leaders to properly handle bilateral relations for a win-win result.

China and the United States both play an important role in the world and they share broad common interests and important common responsibilities.

To build a partnership of mutual respect and mutual benefit between China and the United States will help maintain their cooperation and bring concrete benefits to their people. It will also help them promote world peace, development and prosperity, address global challenges and bring benefits to the rest of the world.

Cooperation between China and the United States in addressing global challenges will help to promote world peace and security. The two countries agreed to advance cooperation to: counter violent extremism; prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, and their means of delivery; strengthen nuclear security; eliminate infectious disease and hunger; end extreme poverty; respond effectively to the challenge of climate change; counter piracy; prevent and mitigate disasters; address cyber-security; fight transnational crime; and combat human trafficking.

Cooperation on addressing global economic challenges will help to boost world development and prosperity. The goals include: push the international community to aid developing economies, especially the most underdeveloped nations; support the world including Africa in poverty reduction, economic development and regional integration in order to contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic growth; and support the Group of 20 launching a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.

Cooperation in addressing climate change will help ensure the future of the world. Aims include: work with other countries to actively push forward the comprehensive, effective and sustained implementation of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change and the Cancun agreement, as well as promote this year's climate change conference in South Africa to achieve positive results.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said: "There is a great opportunity to start a new era in U.S.-China relations."

He said the U.S.-China partnership and cooperation was "perhaps even more important" than anytime before and their cooperation "could be good for the world."

Based on mutual respect and mutual benefit laid out in the joint statement, China-U.S relations will sure begin a new journey.