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Xi Jinping told Joe Biden that China was prepared to work with the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump to manage differences in the turbulent relationship in his final meeting with his US counterpart.

The Chinese and US presidents met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima on Saturday. In his opening remarks before their private meeting, Xi said the US-China relationship had seen “ups and downs” over the past four years but that it has largely remained “stable”.

“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation, and manage differences . . . for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi told Biden.

Biden said the US-China relationship was the most important “alliance” in the world, before correcting himself and saying it was the “most important relationship”.

Repeating one of his stock phrases, Biden said: “Our two countries cannot let any of this competition veer into conflict . . . Over the past four years I think we’ve proven it’s possible to have this relationship.”

Relations between the US and China plummeted over the past four years, reaching their lowest level in decades when then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022 and a Chinese spy balloon flew over the US last year. Relations have since stabilised, but the superpowers remain at odds over many issues.

Following the meeting, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the leaders had a “candid” exchange about cooperation, including on counter-narcotics, but also on areas where there are significant disagreements such as China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base.

Sullivan said Biden and Xi had reached an important agreement on “the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons” which he said was the first time that China had made such a pledge.

“We’ve generated something meaningful today. It is not the end of the line, but it’s the start of something that we hope can be carried forward,” Sullivan said.

In its readout of the meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry said the two leaders had “stressed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons”.

The meeting comes two months before Trump will return as president. In recent days, he has named people with tough stances on China for top positions, including Florida congressman Mike Waltz for national security adviser and Florida senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state.

But experts are waiting to see if Elon Musk — who has become close to Trump and who produces and sells Tesla cars in China — will urge the president to take a softer approach towards Beijing.

While Xi repeated his mantra that China wants to have work with the US, he said “major country competition should not be the underlying logic of the times”. He also pushed back against the idea of decoupling and US measures to deny China advanced semiconductor-related technologies in what is known in Washington as the “small yard, high fence” policy.

“‘Small yard, high fences’ is not what a major country should pursue,” Xi told Biden.

Sullivan said the US export controls were narrowly targeted at high-end technologies related to American national security concerns, and added that there was “nothing surprising about President Xi raising his concerns”.

The meeting in Lima was their third in person as leaders and their first since they met in San Francisco a year ago at the last Apec forum.