BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide and the International Monetary Fund's positive prediction for 5.5 percent global growth in 2021 -- signs of emerging from the pandemic, the globe is still striving to secure an effective exit from the crisis.

As mankind is at a critical juncture in the public health battle, the U.S.-China relationship has also reached a new crossroads, with emerging opportunities to open a new window of hope.

Experts worldwide, underscoring the weights of the United States and China, urged the two countries to bring their ties back on track and renew cooperation.

Noting China and the United States are both major global economies, Kiyoyuki Seguchi, research director at Japan's Canon Institute for Global Studies, said confrontation between the two powers will not only affect the economic and even political stability of all countries, but also disrupt global stability and development.

The researcher said he hopes Washington would actively cooperate with China in epidemic prevention and control, economic recovery and climate change, which are all important not only to the two countries but also to the whole world as well.

Last week, global COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 million, data from Johns Hopkins University showed, while the United States reported the most cases and deaths around the world.

Tom Watkins, an advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, told Xinhua that the world needs China and the United States to come together to defeat the pandemic and reignite the global economy.

He elaborated that China and the United States can collaborate in global health, economy and climate action, as well as other mutually beneficial areas.

"We need to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate," Watkins said. "We need a new step that begins with caring about the world we are going to leave to future generations."

Humphrey Moshi, a professor of economics at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and director of the Centre for Chinese Studies, said "with today's globalized world, the world needs to embrace multilateralism which is the way forward. For example, (U.S.) President Joe Biden's decision to reverse (former) President Donald Trump's move to withdraw from the World Health Organization is good news."

Moshi also said he expects the Biden administration to "improve thorny relations that existed between the two countries."

"The preservation and stabilization of this relationship is an issue both for the well-being of the Chinese and American peoples and for that of all the peoples of the world, and also an imperative for peace, stability and development in the world," said Sonia Bressler, French writer and sinologist.

"Their cooperation achieves great things for the benefit of both countries and the world, and their confrontation will be a disaster for both countries and the world," she added, a viewpoint echoed by Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

The world would undergo dramatic changes in the next century, and "we can build the future together, or conflict and disease can take too big a place," Perry said.