Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China is ready to improve relations with the United States following the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.

Wang Yi made the remarks at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara, where he was on an official visit.

He was responding to a question from the media on whether China had made contact with Trump's team.

"China and the United States are in frequent contact as usual. Both the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. agree to improve and deepen relations with China. We want to continue the cooperation [that we had] with the Obama administration. We wish to continue our good relations with the new administration. We want to improve our relations and our ties through mutual understanding by getting in touch with the Trump administration. Just like our President Xi Jinping expressed in his congratulatory message, we are ready to improve our relations by mutual respect, mutual win. We established a roadmap to improve relations with the U.S. and we are ready to make efforts for that."

Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador to United States Cui Tiankai has said the common interests between China and the US will chart the future direction of their relationship.

Cui made the remarks in an interview on CNN.

"Our bilateral relations are based on and defined by our growing common interests and mutual needs. Our two countries are cooperating with each other in so many areas, including economic cooperation and in trade relations, mutual investment, energy, counter-terrorism, and so many international regional issues. So this growing common interest, I think, will determine the future direction of this relationship."

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Donald Trump shortly after Trump became president-elect of the United States.

In the message, the Chinese President said that development of a long-term, healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of the peoples of the two countries as well as the general expectations of the global community.