• 13 hours ago
Chinese president Xi Jinping has met with British prime minister Keir Starmer for what is the first face-to-face talks between a Chinese President and UK Prime Minister in over six years.

President Xi is in Brazil for the G20 summit as well as a state visit

#china #uk #g20 #brazil
Transcript
00:00Well I think it's really about the UK trying to reverse what were chilled
00:05relations with China under the previous Conservative government. The Labour Party
00:09has made its absolute priority economic growth and it believes that China is a
00:14key factor in that. So at this meeting Keir Starmer said that it wasn't just a
00:21cosy one-to-one meeting. Both sides had large teams on either side of
00:26their leaders, ministers and advisors. At the beginning of the meeting Prime
00:31Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the need for strong UK-China relations and
00:36promised that the UK would be consistent, durable and respective and avoid
00:41surprises where possible. For his part President Xi Jinping said
00:47relations should be stable, practical and consistent. Now in geopolitical terms
00:53President Xi talked about the world entering a period of turbulence and
00:57change. No reference there to upcoming President Donald Trump but he said that
01:02both countries need to do more than just cooperate on economic development, must
01:08work on global issues. That's about as much as we've had so far from them but
01:16obviously this is very much about the UK trying to improve its economic
01:21performance. Last month we had the Foreign Secretary David Lammy go to
01:25China for their first meeting and it does look as if the Chancellor will go
01:30to Beijing early in the new year to talk again more about investment and trade.

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