US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping to congratulate him on a new leadership line-up unveiled at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing.
The two also discussed North Korea and trade, Trump said in a Twitter post.
“Spoke to President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation. Also discussed NoKo & trade, two very important subjects!” Trump wrote.
Xi told Trump China would “unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development” and promote “coordination and cooperation among world major powers”, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Wednesday.
“China attaches great importance to the Sino-U.S. relations and is willing to promote the long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefits,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying.
Trump is expected to meet Xi when he visits China next month, when the two are likely to discuss issues related to North Korea and US-China trade, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
China has the world's second-largest economy after the US, its biggest trading partner.
However, relations have been strained by Beijing's territorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea with Washington's allies in East Asia.
Meanwhile, North Korean state media agency KCNA reported that leader Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to Xi, according to BBC.
The message "expressed the conviction that the relations between the two parties and the two countries would develop in the interests" of the Chinese and North Koreans.
It also officially acknowledged Xi's political doctrine, noting that the China had "entered the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era".
Though relations have cooled in recent years, amid Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, China remains North Korea's closest ally.
