Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who has described the US-China relationship as the "defining" relationship of the 21st century, said on Tuesday that both sides need to work together for "peace and human progress".

"It will be imperative that we work together to lift our relationship from the pragmatic and from the day-to-day solving of problems to the conceptual, to the creation of a new encompassing concept of a world order that promotes peace and human progress, as we are now doing on the Korean issue," Kissinger said. He spoke at the opening ceremony of the US-China University Presidents and Think Tank Forum at Columbia University.

Kissinger said conflict between China and the US would be a disaster for each society and for the world at large. "As I said before, we do not have this choice," Kissinger emphasized. He said he has visited China more than 100 times since his first visit 46 years ago.