WASHINGTON - Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Tuesday that a cooperative US-China relationship can avoid a "collision" of the two giants in Asia.

"If we have a cooperative relationship, then the nations of Asia do not have to choose between China and the United States, and China and the United States can develop relations with other countries in Asia," Kissinger said in his keynote speech at the one-day "Global China Summit" symposium organized by Washington Post Live.

"The American concern is not to permit one country to dominate all of Asia," he said.

"So if we have an adversarial relationship," Kissinger said, the two nations "will collide with each other."

The former diplomat also rejected the notion that China is a "rising country," arguing that in 18 out of the last 20 centuries, China was the most powerful country in the world.

"The Chinese are reclaiming the place that has historically been China's, and they are returning to this place," he said.

Forty years ago, Kissinger made a secret trip to China, paving the way for the normalization of diplomatic ties between China and the United States.