U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech at a dialogue with Chinese youth at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum during his four-day state visit to China, Nov. 16, 2009.(Xinhua/Pei Xin)

Bilateral cooperation between the United States and China enables both countries to be more prosperous and more secure, US President Barack Obama said in Shanghai 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.

U.S. President Barack Obama gestures as he delivers a speech at a dialogue with Chinese youth at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum during his four-day state visit to China, Nov. 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Chen Fei)

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.