BEIJING, March 8  -- The major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has been taking shape since Xi Jinping assumed China's top leadership, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature annual session, Wang said China, on its good diplomatic tradition, has made active efforts and broken new grounds in its diplomacy under the leadership of Xi who has put forward a series of new thoughts, new ideas and new measures.

"We are on the path to major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics," Wang said.

The minister said China's diplomatic efforts serve to help realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and to build a community of shared destiny for all mankind, via the strategic choice of peaceful development.

"The basic principle is to have win-win cooperation and build a new type of international relations on that basis," Wang said. "Its main pathway is to establish various types of partnerships and to choose partnership over alliance and dialogue over confrontation."

"The value we insist on is to adopt a balanced approach to friendship and interest, to uphold justice in international affairs, and to put friendship before interest in state-to-state relations," he said.

Wang went on to cite a new year message delivered by Xi who asserted China's indispensable role on the global stage.

"The world is so big and faces so many problems, the international community wishes to hear China's voices and see China's solutions, and China cannot be absent," Wang recited.

Wang said China, guided by Xi's diplomatic thinking and the arrangements made by the central leadership, will play a more active role in contributing to world peace and stability as well as prosperity and progress of mankind.