Xi said he looks forward to renewing China's close ties with Myanmar and discussing future cooperation during a trip to the Southeast Asian country in a signed article titled "Writing a New Chapter in Our Millennia-Old Pauk-Phaw Friendship", published on Thursday in Myanmar newspapers ahead of his two-day state visit.

Pauk-phaw, which means siblings from the same mother in the Myanmar language, "is an apt description of the fraternal sentiments between our two peoples, whose close ties date back to ancient times", Xi said.

Myanmar was among the first countries with a different social system to recognize the People's Republic of China after its founding in 1949.