Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to the United States is crucial to advancing the China-U.S. cooperative partnership, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said Friday.

"This is an important high-level visit between China and the U.S. this year," Zhang said in an interview with U.S.-based Chinese journalists.

Xi will visit the United States on Feb. 13-17 at the invitation of his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.

The ambassador said the visit was aimed at consolidating the China-U.S. cooperative partnership by implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state last year.

"The visit to the U.S. by Vice President Xi is set to be successful through the joint efforts of both sides," Zhang said.

The Chinese envoy hailed the remarkable progress achieved in developing China-U.S. relations in the past four decades since former U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972, when the two countries issued the Shanghai Communique that paved the way for the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries years later.

Though differences exist between the two sides on some issues, Zhang said cooperation prevails in China-U.S. relations because the two countries share more common interests than differences.

He said the consensus reached last January by visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on building a China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit was "pragmatic and forward-looking."

With enhanced cooperation, the two countries are sharing increasing common interests as they are becoming increasingly involved with each other in many ways.

"China and the U.S. need to, and can, have better cooperation not only in promoting domestic and global economic growth, but also in tackling regional and global challenges," Zhang said.

The ambassador said that the key to building a China-U.S. cooperative partnership lies in properly dealing of frictions and disputes between the two sides.

"It's crucial for the two sides to show mutual respect, especially to each other's core interests and major concerns, while strengthening mutual dialogues and communications so as to deepen mutual trust and avoid miscalculation," he said.

Zhang emphasized that as a developing country, China will unswervingly adhere to the path of peaceful development and has no intention of harming the interests of any other countries during the process of its own development.

As China and the United States are not engaged in a zero-sum game, China's development will only bring more opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, he said.

"I believe that China and the U.S. will find a new path of peaceful co-existence and common development for big powers," Zhang said.