In what will be Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first official visit to the US as president, plans are now underway to invite him for a state visit later this year. It is expected that President Xi will push for a “new model of major-country relations,” an idea Xi first introduced during his 2012 visit to Washington.

The visit is also being planned during a time of a strong American Asia-Pacific military presence whose goal is to contain he military power of the communist country. The visit is being planned with the help of China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.

No date for the visit has yet been determined, but discussions are now underway, according to Cui, who also pointed out that high-level meetings have been going on successfully in recent years, despite the many differences in each country’s outlooks.

“We are also very willing to see such interactions continuing this year, and we may even have a greater success,” Cui said.

The future meeting will not be the first meeting between Xi and President Obama. They leaders met after the informal summit in California in June 2013. They also met informally at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Beijing this past November.

Although no date has been fixed, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said that the US had officially invited President Xi for a state visit to be held later this year.