DHAKA: Confrontation with the US would be a ‘disaster’, Chinese president Xi Jinping has said as he called for mutual respect between the two nations.

Xi’s comments came at an annual China-US dialogue held in Beijing.

Diplomats are expected to discuss China’s currency, North Korea and tensions in the South China Sea.

The US delegation is led by Secretary of State John Kerry, who in his opening remarks said that the US was not seeking to ‘contain’ China.

Xi said the two countries’ interests were now ‘more than ever interconnected’, with much to gain from co-operation.

‘China-US confrontation, to the two countries and the world, would definitely be a disaster,’ he said, reports the BBC.

‘We should mutually respect and treat each other equally, and respect the other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and respect each other’s choice on the path of development.’

Kerry, meanwhile, said the US did ‘not seek to contain China’ and urged Beijing not to ‘interpret it as an overall strategy’ when the US differed from China on certain issues.

US president Barack Obama also said in a statement that the US ‘welcomes the emergence of a stable, peaceful, and prosperous China’.

‘We remain determined to ensure that co-operation defines the overall relationship,’ he said.

BDST: 1611 HRS, JULY 09, 2014