Henry Kissinger meets Xi Jinping in Beijing

July 20 (UPI) -- Henry Kissinger, a former U.S. secretary of state who is on a surprise trip to China, met with the Asian nation's leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, according to state-run media.

Kissinger met Xi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in the Chinese capital following a spate of high-ranking U.S. government officials having made trips to China in an effort to relax growing tensions in the U.S.-China relationship, which the 100-year-old former secretary of state helped forge decades ago.

In a short video clip of the meeting shared by China's state-run tabloid Global Times, Kissinger tells Xi that it is a privilege not only to visit Beijing but it was "extraordinarily good" of the president to have arranged for their meeting to be held in Villa 5 of the guest house where his first meeting with a Chinese leader took place.

"The relations between our two countries would be central to the peace in the world and to the progress of our society," he said.

Xi, according to China Daily, told Kissinger that China values his friendship.

"We will not forget the historical contributions you have made to the development of China-U.S. relations and the friendship between the Chinese and American people," the Chinese leader said.

The visit by Kissinger, who served as secretary of state and national security adviser during the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, coincided with U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry's trip to China and follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to the Asian country in mid-June and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's trip earlier this month.

The U.S. officials have traveled across the world in an effort to create lines of communication with China in areas where the Biden administration sees potential for collaboration, such as the economy and the climate crisis, amid the further fraying of already fraught tensions between Washington and Beijing amid their growing global competition.

Kissinger held a meeting with China's U.S.-sanctioned defense minister Li Shangfu on Tuesday and Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Wednesday.

The Biden administration said it is aware of the trip and that Kissinger was visiting China as a private citizen.

The centenarian has made repeated trips to China over the decades -- more than 100, according to China Daily -- and is credited with helping to forge U.S.-China relations during his time in office as he helped negotiate the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué, which laid the foundation for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1979.