Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Thursday stressed the importance of people-to-people exchanges between her country and the United States.

"Today, people-to-people exchanges, political trust and business cooperation have together become the three pillars underpinning the new model of major-country relations between China and the United States," she told the US Institute for Peace.

The exchanges have reached an "unprecedented level in both frequency of visits and depth of interaction," said Liu, who earlier in the day co-chaired an annual consultation on people-to-people exchanges with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

She and Kerry reached agreement on future exchange programs.