Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai called the year 2015 another milestone in China-US relations.

"The successful state visit to the United States by President Xi Jinping took our relations to a higher level," he told an audience of some 800 on Tuesday evening at the Chinese Embassy in Washington at a reception marking the 66th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Cui said the two sides achieved their targeted goal of enhancing mutual trust through the state visit. He said the two leaders have agreed to continue building a new model of major-country relationship based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

"The topics they discussed were so strategic. Yet the atmosphere was so relaxed, sincere and constructive. It certainly carried forward the good tradition from Sunnylands in 2013 and Yingtai in 2014," said Cui, referring to the informal summit in the California desert retreat of Sunnylands and the summit in Beijing's Imperial Garden last November.

Citing the many important agreements reached in a wide range of fields during Xi's visit, Cui noted that the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to addressing disagreements in a constructive way.

"No one expected all the difficult issues to disappear once and for all after one state visit," he said. "And there won't be a day when China-US relations are free of challenges. Yet strategic communications at the top level undoubtedly helped the two sides understand more about each other's concerns.

"This paved the way for proper management of the differences so that they won't stand in the way of our cooperation," he said. "Not only that, the two sides also agreed to work together in a creative and constructive manner to turn the differences into rallying points. This will have a far-reaching impact on China-US relations."

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday extended his congratulations on the anniversary of PRC's founding.

"Over the last year, including during the state visit of President Xi last week, we have shown how much we can accomplish through cooperation," Kerry said in the statement.

Patrick Kennedy, US undersecretary of state for management, said at the reception that Xi and President Barack Obama had productive meetings and moved forward on a number of important issues that not only improve the lives of people in the US and China, but many around the world.

He said the relationship and cooperation between the countries continue to deepen. "Central to our relationship is the fact that the United States and China have a stake in each other's success, so does the world," Kennedy said.

David Dollar, a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, described Xi's trip as "very successful".

"The US and China did not agree on everything, but they made a lot of progress," said Dollar, adding that the two big countries presented a good image to the world that they are working together on climate change and cyber issues.

But Dollar said he was a little disappointed that the progress on the Bilateral Investment Treaty has been slow.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com