Beijing is ready to "strengthen communication, boost mutual trust, manage and control differences and deepen cooperation" with Washington, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday.

Beijing's goal is to "achieve a greater development of China-US ties" during the tenure of US President Donald Trump, Wang added.

They met for the first time since Tillerson assumed his current post, on the sidelines during the Group 20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bonn, Germany.

This is the first high-level, face-to-face contact on diplomacy between the two governments since Trump entered the Oval Office on Jan 20.

Tillerson said only friendship could define the relationship, and the US expects to conduct high-level exchanges with China, according to an official release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The two countries hope to maintain, improve and reinforce dialogues and the cooperative mechanism in various spheres and have stronger cooperation in areas that include the economy, finance and security, Tillerson added.

In a telephone call earlier this month, Trump told President Xi Jinping the new US administration honors the one-China policy, and they both envisioned a better development of ties at a new starting point.

On Friday, Tillerson also reassured Wang on the one-China policy.