UK’s Starmer calls for ‘consistent, durable’ ties with China in Xi meeting

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to establish “consistent, durable” relations between their two nations, pressing on with efforts to thaw ties between London and Beijing at a G20 summit.

The meeting in Brazil was the first between the countries’ two leaders since 2018, and Starmer struck an upbeat tone, saying he would like to engage with Beijing on areas such as trade, the economy and climate, and have broader engagement on science, technology, health and education.

The British leader also said he would start plans to have a “full bilateral” with Xi in either Beijing or London and hoped his finance minister Rachel Reeves would meet Vice Premier He Lifeng to discuss economic and financial cooperation next year.

“We want our relations to be consistent, durable, respectful as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible, and strengthened dialogue should provide stronger understanding,” Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting.

“The UK will be a predictable consistent sovereign actor committed to the rule of law and multilateral system,” he said, adding he appreciated Xi’s candour in a call in August and would match him in tone when raising differences between the two.

Xi told Starmer that China and Britain should adopt a rational and objective perspective on each other’s development and the two nations should enhance strategic communication and deepen political mutual trust, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The meeting’s cooperative tone was in stark contrast to ties under the former Conservative government, which took a robust approach to differences with China, particularly over human rights, Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese espionage.

With Starmer focused on rebooting growth in the economy to try to meet his promise during an election in July of rebuilding public services, the British leader is keen to encourage trade and investment from different nations.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “They also discussed deepening the partnership bilaterally on trade and investment, health, education and other areas of mutual interest.

They both agreed climate should be high on the agenda, the spokesperson said.

Starmer also said he wanted to engage frankly with China on issues where the two countries had different perspectives, such as human rights, Hong Kong and Ukraine, the spokesperson said.

Starmer has long described his desire to build a “pragmatic” relationship with China that is “rooted in the UK’s national interests”, taking aim at boosting trade, a task that may become more difficult if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose tariffs on all imports.

China is Britain’s sixth-largest trading partner, accounting for 5% of goods and services trade worth 86.5 billion pounds ($112 billion), while Britain has a 1.2% market share of Chinese trade.

The latest meeting builds on the government’s growing engagement with China, after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited China last month, a softening criticised by the now opposition Conservative Party which remains wary of Beijing.

(Reporting by Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper in London, Eduardo Baptista in Rio de Janeiro and Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo in Beijing: Editing by Nicholas Yong, Christina Fincher, Nick Zieminski, William Maclean)