At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump will pay a state visit to China from May 13 to 15, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced on Monday morning.

This comes after the face-to-face meeting between the two heads of state in Busan last October, and also marks the first visit to China by a US president in nine years, Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the ministry, told a regular press briefing on Monday afternoon.

President Xi will hold in-depth exchanges with President Trump on major issues concerning China-US relations and world peace and development, Guo said.

Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-US relations, he noted.

China stands ready to work with the US to uphold the spirit of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit, expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject greater stability and certainty into a world fraught with changes and turbulence, he added.