Editor's note: Hannan Hussain is a security analyst at the London School of Economics-South Asia Centre, and an author. The article reflects the author's opinions, not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's decision to offer U.S. President Donald Trump assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic is a welcome break from weeks of bilateral tensions. During Friday's telephonic exchange, Xi detailed China's disease prevention and containment measures to Trump, while the latter appreciated Beijing's inputs at the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit. The entire correspondence was marked by a sense of transparency, openness and responsible statesmanship that is needed to treat COVID-19 as a global undertaking – a point Beijing has consistently emphasized.

As COVID-19 is spreading fast and wide across the globe, Trump's statement that both China and the U.S. "are working closely together" on the pandemic offers a glimmer of hope to accelerate efforts. The resulting consensus – if Beijing's rapprochement is reciprocated in good faith by Washington – could bring global unity a step closer.

Let's begin with the United States. Partnering with Beijing means becoming part of the current conversation on disease prevention world-over. Consider the fact that Chinese health experts have been actively engaged with their Italian counterparts to tackle COVID-19 in Europe's hardest hit country. Thousands of pulmonary ventilators, medical and protective equipment have been leveraged to plug supply gaps. These efforts are now being scaled to 83 countries, with focus on crucial technological linkages and applied international expertise.

Washington's unexplained aversion to Chinese assistance – whether through fruitless disinformation spats or media schisms – has brought astronomical burden on its own rapid response infrastructure. "Understanding what they [Chinese health experts] did that we could emulate is very important," said Jeremy Konyndyk, the former lead of Washington's Foreign Disaster Assistance unit under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Hence, inviting scores of Chinese medical experts to American cities could help generate disease prevention breakthroughs when the American people need it most.

For China, there is some evidence to suggest that Trump's recent exchange with President Xi is not entirely embedded in rhetoric. Washington is already trying its hand at a larger disaster management effort, especially in Asia – it has set up a 274 million U.S. dollar fund for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Myanmar and Uzbekistan to bolster the international community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Note that this is the same sentiment which Beijing and Washington echoed in their exchange on Friday, raising hopes for a credible Sino-U.S. diplomatic opening.

Secondly, it is in China's interests to revive decades-long exchange of scientific and disease prevention expertise with the U.S. that had been interrupted by President Trump's unilateral handling. In 2002, rounds of American scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made their way to Southern China to help combat the advent of SARS outbreak and jointly limit it to Asia. Chinese disease experts reciprocated through vaccine development and pivotal epidemiological exchange with their American counterparts. It is against this backdrop that President Trump's virtual eclipse of the CDC office in Beijing deals a blow to historic exchanges. A rapprochement now could set those linkages right.

Interestingly, if the Trump administration follows through with "concrete steps to push forward cooperation," a Sino-U.S. rapprochement could have its global merits as well. Firstly, it could lend vital impetus to the G20's agreed-upon response package for the COVID-19 pandemic. Research from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Brookings Institution shows that whenever the U.S. and China have partnered, they encouraged other G20 states to examine previous support policies, and refocus them towards today's most pressing challenges – in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Secondly, a strategic common-ground between the U.S. and China could accomplish what years of advocacy failed to achieve: mend ties between Washington and its perceived adversaries. Russia has called on the Trump administration to prioritize relations as falling oil prices rattle international markets, and puncture revenues streams for American producers the most.

"Efforts to restore relations between Russia and the United States are now as important as ever, we will take all the efforts on our side and hope the United States will also understand that this is necessary," said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

Similarly, Washington's veiled attempts at military escalations in Iraq – in a bid to get back at the Iranian leadership – are now being debated within Trump's own ranks, a rare occurrence. The Trump administration's tendency to undermine the COVID-19 fight through military deliberations, sanctions, diplomatic fallouts and smearing allegations – has been identified by its own critics as a distraction that needs to change.

That change is best served as a precedent for COVID-19 cooperation between China and the United States – where values of mutual accommodation, openness and trust take precedence over hostile allegations.

"We're seeing Russian, Chinese and Iranian state information operations converging around the same disinformation narrative about COVID-19," said a top State Department official on the day President Trump communicated China's progress on COVID-19 to President Xi.

This also needs to change.

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