China stands ready to maintain close exchanges with UK, Chinese FM says on British foreign secretary’s reported China visit

When responding to a foreign media reporter's question citing a Reuters report on Friday that British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will visit China according to sources, and asking whether China could confirm the visit and what expectations China has for Cooper's planned visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Friday that both China and the UK are permanent members of the UN Security Council and major economies in the world. To develop a sustained and steady China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership is an important common understanding reached between the leaders of the two countries.

China stands ready to maintain close exchanges and dialogue with the UK side and jointly work for continued development in our friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, the spokesperson noted.

"On the visit you mentioned, I have nothing to share at the moment," Guo said.

According to an exclusive Reuters report on Friday, Cooper is expected to visit China in early June, three sources said, as London seeks to capitalize on relatively cordial ties with Beijing ‌before any fresh setback over a new Chinese embassy in the UK capital.

The British government announced in January that it had approved plans for the construction of a new Chinese embassy in London. The new embassy is scheduled to be built on the former Royal Mint Court site in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

When asked to comment on the British government's announcement, Guo told a regular press conference in January that providing support and convenience for the construction of diplomatic premises is an international obligation of host countries. The planning proposal of the new Chinese embassy project is of high quality. The application and its approval are fully in line with international diplomatic practice as well as local legal regulations and procedures.

The recent period has seen improving momentum in China-UK relations. On March 19, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone call with Cooper at the latter's request, and the two sides exchanged views focusing on the current situation in the Middle East, per a readout from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The two sides also exchanged views on China-UK relations and agreed that both countries should actively implement the consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, enhance exchanges, and continuously advance the long-term, stable comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the UK, so as to inject stability and certainty to a world marked by turbulence and change, according to the readout.

In January, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer made an official visit to China, marking the first by a British prime minister in eight years, per Xinhua. 

Starmer's official visit to China yielded fruitful results, demonstrating the breadth and depth of cooperation between the two countries, Guo told a regular press conference in January.