The United States should aim to be on equal footing with China, Henry Kissinger told CTV's Lloyd Robertson on Friday.

Kissinger, who believes China is far from becoming the world's next superpower, appeared in Toronto for Friday's sold-out annual Munk Debates in Toronto.

The former U.S. Secretary of State echoed the themes of his new book, "On China," predicting that the United States will continue to maintain its position in the world as the most influential country.

"On any foreseeable outcome, over the next 25 years, the United States is still probably going to be, overall, the strongest nation in the world -- still will have the largest economy in the world," said Kissinger.

The German-born diplomat and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize said, however, that "there is no reason to believe it's not possible to have a relationship of at least equals and that's what we should be heading for."

Asked what China's objective is, Kissinger said, without equivocation, that the Asian nation's goal is to "rise without being squelched before they reached whatever limits they can reach."

Kissinger said he did not favour the view that his country should give lectures to sovereign countries about their own domestic evolution.

"When I was in government, I use to tell my associates that our job is foreign policy and not to intervene in every domestic instruction."

"On China" addresses the role Kissinger played in U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic efforts to reach out to China after more than two decades of no diplomatic contact.

He said Canada should adopt a similar, if not reduced role with China relations.

"I come from a tradition that looks at Canada, of course as a foreign country but not as a totally foreign country, not as a county that is involved in power politics. But if Canada has any ideas of what could be done to improve relations, we should totally hear them."

The Friday night debate had Kissinger and Time magazine's Fareed Zakaria debating against historian Niall Ferguson and David Li of Beijing's Tsinghua University, the latter two authors arguing that the 21st century will belong to China.

Early results from an audience poll show Kissinger and Zakaria won, taking 62 per cent of the vote.

With files from The Canadian Press.