India, May 14 -- In a strikingly warm message on Thursday at the Great Hall of the People, Xi Jinping described ties between China and the United States as the most important bilateral relationship in the world, urging both sides to preserve and strengthen it.

"We both believe that the China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. We must make it work and never mess it up," Xi said during his remarks as he met US President Donald Trump in Beijing.

Cooperation over confrontation

The Chinese leader framed the future of relations as a choice between shared prosperity and mutual decline, stressing that both nations benefit from working together and suffer when tensions rise.

He also said the relationship...