When President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama met in the capital of Peru, the two had one person in mind: Donald Trump, the US president-elect, whom they expect will maintain the momentum of bilateral relations.

"After Mr. Trump was elected the next US president, I had a phone conversation with him," Xi said when he met Obama on Saturday on the sidelines of meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization being held in Lima.

Xi said he is willing to work with Trump to expand cooperation in different fields at bilateral, regional and global levels, and manage differences in a constructive way, so as to realize a relationship featuring nonconfrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, and push forward China-United States ties further from a new starting point.

Obama, who is on his last overseas trip as president, said he had emphasized to his successor the importance of relations with the world's second-largest economy.

"I have underlined the importance of US-China relations to Trump, and stressed that there should be a smooth transition of bilateral ties in the wake of the US presidential elections," Obama said, according to a Chinese news release.

The US side is ready to develop a more sustained, fruitful relationship with China, Obama said.

Mentioning that it's the ninth meeting between him and Obama in the past three years, Xi said the frequent high-level exchanges showed that both sides attach great importance to the development of the China-US relationship.

Xi spoke highly of the US president's endeavor in developing bilateral ties, especially their joint decision to build a new type of China-US major country relations, which has guided the two countries to achieve significant progress in bilateral ties.

Recalling his close contacts with Xi in recent years, Obama said he and Xi have established a candid, friendly and constructive relationship and enhanced mutual trust.

In more than three years, Washington and Beijing have joined hands to confront challenges and effectively managed differences, while bilateral consultation and cooperation mechanisms have yielded rich results, said Obama.

"We have demonstrated what's possible when our two countries work together," Obama said, adding that the US and China have collaborated on key global challenges, such as fighting climate change and ending the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Li Haidong, a professor of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said that no matter who becomes US president, cooperation always exceeds conflict and disagreement, and the two countries can always manage disparities through dialogue and consultation.

The frequent meetings between Xi and Obama in various settings over the past few years have shown they have "flexible working styles" and have established a "close and harmonious personal relationship", which serves the interest of stable and sound bilateral relations, Li said.

"Although there were some disagreements, bilateral relations are stable and moving forward in a good direction," Li said.

Zou Shuo contributed to this story.