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Sir Keir Starmer met Xi Jinping on Thursday as the two leaders sought to strengthen trade relations after years of strained ties over spying scandals and geopolitical tensions.
Starmer, the first UK prime minister to visit China in eight years, is expected to sign a pact with Xi to share intelligence to tackle people-trafficking gangs and to work together to curtail the supply of the Chinese-made small boat engines used in Channel crossings.
The UK prime minister earlier on Thursday met Zhao Leji, the head of China’s rubber-stamp parliament. He is due to have lunch with Xi before meeting China’s second-ranked official, Premier Li Qiang, in the afternoon along with business leaders from both countries.
Zhao praised Starmer’s efforts to reach a rapprochement with China amid a “changing and turbulent international landscape”. He said ties were now on “the correct track to improvement and development” and “positive progress has been made”.
Starmer added: “We have made this trip because I believe it is strongly in our common interest to find positive ways to work together, and that has been our long-standing position.”
Chinese state media have given generous coverage to Starmer’s visit, as Beijing seeks to exploit the rupture in the western alliance created by US President Donald Trump’s economic and military threats to his allies.
“Since the UK Labour government came to power, it has clearly stated its willingness to develop a coherent, lasting, and strategic UK-China relationship,” state-owned news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.
Downing Street said that under a border-security pact, UK teams would work with Chinese authorities to prevent small boat engines and equipment used in Channel crossings getting into the hands of criminal gangs.
Number 10 said the plan included intelligence sharing to identify smugglers’ supply routes and working with Chinese manufacturers to prevent legitimate businesses being exploited.
Starmer told a travelling business and cultural delegation in Beijing after his arrival in Beijing on Wednesday evening that they were “making history”.
“We are engaging and building a comprehensive, sustained, stable, strategic approach to China,” Starmer said.
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