Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, pledged on Friday to expand mutually beneficial cooperation and to manage their differences based on mutual respect.

The two leaders also agreed that their first meeting, held at the seaside Mar-a-Lago resort in the U.S. state of Florida, was "positive and fruitful."

During their talks over the past two days, Xi and Trump exchanged their views on key areas of bilateral cooperation as well as global and regional issues of common concern.

Xi said his first meeting with the U.S. leader bears unique importance to the development of China-U.S. ties.

He added that they, during the meeting, have also gained better understanding of each other, stepped up their mutual trust, scored multiple major consensus, and built up a good working relationship.

The two sides need to further enhance their relationship so as to better serve the two countries and their peoples, and to promote world peace and prosperity, Xi said.

Also in their talks, Xi told Trump that Beijing welcomes Washington to participate in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Ahead of the two presidents' second round of talks, senior Chinese and U.S. officials initiated two newly-installed dialogue mechanisms in economy, as well as diplomacy and security.

Source: Xinhua