2016年CRI G20 meeting to enhance China-US mutual trust: ambassador（在线收听）

It was confirmed last week that President Xi Jinping and Obama are going to have a one-on-one discussion during the forthcoming G20 Summit in the city of Hangzhou.

The meeting in Zhejiang's capital takes on some historical significance, as Hangzhou was where - some 40 years ago - negotiations were held for the first ever China-U.S. joint communiqué.

China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, suggests next month's meeting is going to create history of its own.

"The history of the China-U.S. relationship for the past over 4 decades has fully proven that the two global heavyweights must cooperate with each other and become cooperative partners, or more commonly known, build a new type of major-power relationship."

Cui Tiankai notes that a lot of headway has already been made between the two sides, with Xi Jinping and Barack Obama having already met a number of times over the past few years.

But the Chinese ambassador says next month's meeting has some extra significance, given that China is hosting this year's G20 session.

"As the top two economies in the world, China and the U.S. have duty-bound responsibilities to play a larger role in ensuring that the Hangzhou Summit can yield constructive results as many as possible. The two countries have been communicating on the issue, and channels for the communication have always been running well."

One of the main issues observers will be looking out for is the South China Sea.

Addressing this issue, Cui Tiankai notes the two sides have remained in communication with one another, and says their differences shouldn't be allowed to define the bilateral relationship.

This year's G20 Summit is set to be held in Hangzhou from September 4th to 5th.

The meeting between Xi Jinping and Obama is expected to take place on the sidelines of this year's sessions.

It's likely to be the last meeting between the two before Obama leaves office in January.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.