
UK wants sophisticated relationship with China: Starmer to Xi Jinping
India Today
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he wanted a "sophisticated relationship" with Beijing during his bilateral with the latter in the Asian nation on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he wanted to build a "sophisticated relationship" with Beijing to boost growth and security, signalling a reset after years of strained ties.
On the most important day of his four-day visit to China, the first by a British prime minister in eight years, Starmer held an 80-minute summit with Xi at the Great Hall of the People before they lunched together. He will later meet Premier Li Qiang.
Starmer, whose centre-left Labour Party government has struggled to deliver the growth it promised, has made improving relations with the world's second-largest economy a priority, despite lingering misgivings about espionage and human rights.
"China is a vital player on the global stage, and it's vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship where we can identify opportunities to collaborate, but of course, also allow a meaningful dialogue on areas where we disagree," Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting.
Xi said ties with Britain had gone through "twists and turns" that did not serve the interests of either country and that China stood ready to develop a long-term strategic partnership.
"We can deliver a result that can withstand the test of history," the Chinese leader said, flanked by his top ministers.

The profiles of at least three of China's leading nuclear, missile and radar experts were scrubbed from the website of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the country's most prestigious academic body. This comes as a series of purges under Premier Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign have decimated the upper echelons of China's military and scientific community.

The aircraft had also been used by senior Iranian officials and military figures for both domestic and international travel, and for coordinating with allied countries, the Israeli military said. Meanwhile, Dubai International Airport has resumed flight operations after a temporary suspension of about seven hours caused by a drone strike near a fuel tank facility.











