China-U.S. cooperation at the local level provides a basis for cooperative partnership between the two countries, visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping said.

Xi made the remarks when meeting with Governor of Iowa Terry Branstad, Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback, and Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder on Wednesday in Des Moines, the capital of Iowa.

Xi said his current visit to the United States was aimed at implementing the important consensus reached by Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama when Hu visited the U.S. in 2011 and advancing the China-U.S. cooperative partnership.

Bilateral cooperation at the local level has thrived in recent years and there was huge potential for enhancing and deepening such cooperation, Xi said.

There were already 38 pairs of sister provinces/states and 176 pairs of sister cities between the two countries, he added.

Xi expressed the hope that Iowa, which is taking the lead in bilateral cooperation at the local level, would do more in this regard in the interest of China-U.S. relations at large.

He also hoped other U.S. states including Kansas and Michigan would increase cooperation with China to contribute to the China-U.S. cooperative partnership.

Branstad said Xi's visit to Iowa 27 years ago and his current tour were a milestone in the state's external relations.

On the same day, Xi also joined a dozen of his old friends for a teatime chat at a local house in Iowa's Muscatine.

Most of the participants at the tea reception were Xi's American friends back from 1985, when Xi, then a local official from China's northern province of Hebei, visited Iowa as a member of an agricultural delegation, and stayed at the homes of local residents and dined with others.