SHANGHAI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral cooperation between the United States and China enables both countries to be more prosperous and more secure, U.S. President Barack Obama said here Monday in a speech to a group of Chinese youngsters.

    "Today we have a positive, constructive and comprehensive relationship that opens the door to partnership on the key global issues of our time: economic recovery, development of clean energy, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and the surge of climate change, the promotion of peace and security in Asia and around the globe," Obama said.

    The president made the speech at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, as part of his four-day state visit to China.

    "We have seen what is possible when we build on our mutual interests and engage on the basis of mutual respect," Obama said.

    The success of that engagement depends on understanding, on sustaining an open dialogue and learning about one another and from one another, the president said.

    Obama believed the United States and China are not "predestined adversaries," saying that the two countries "share much in common "but" are different in certain ways."

    Citing the Chinese proverb "consider the past and you shall know the future," Obama said the United States and China have known setbacks and challenges over the last 30 years.

    "Our relationship has not been without disagreement and difficulties. But the notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined," Obama said.

    It is no coincidence that the relationship between our countries has accompanied a period of positive change, he added.

    Obama hoped to deepen the partnership between the United States and China in the future, saying that the young people whose talent, dedication and dreams will help shape the twenty-first century.

    He pointed out that one country's success need not come at the expense of another.

    "That is why the United States insists we do not seek to contain China's rise, on the contrary, we welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations, a China that draws on the rights, strengths and creativity of individual Chinese like you."

    Obama said more is to be gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide, and he believed that cooperation must grow beyond governments.

    "It must be rooted in our people, in the studies we share, the business that we do, the knowledge that we gain, and even in the sports that we play, and these bridges must be built by young men and women just like you and your counterparts in America," he said.

Special report: President Obama's Dialogue with Chinese Youths