The rules-based international order is in Britain and China’s “shared interest”, Yvette Cooper said as she met the country’s vice-president Han Zheng for talks on global security as part of a three-day visit to Asia.
The Foreign Secretary acknowledged “areas of disagreement” between London and Beijing but insisted that approaching discussions with “candour and respect” would help to increase mutual understanding of one another.
Greeting the minister in the capital’s Great Hall of the People on Tuesday, Mr Han hailed a “new chapter in bilateral ties” which he said had been opened during Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to the country in January.
On her first visit to the country, Ms Cooper said as two “P5 powers” – permanent member states of the UN Security Council – the UK and China must work together to address global challenges, citing wars in Ukraine and Iran and health crises like the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“It is in our shared interest to have a rules-based international order and to find ways to reduce rising geoeconomic tensions,” she said.
China’s relationship with Russia, with which it has shared enduring strategic ties following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022, is expected to be raised during bilateral talks lasting several hours on Tuesday.
Addressing Mr Han at the top of the meeting, the Foreign Secretary said: “I’m very pleased to be here in China, thank you for welcoming me.
“We will have important issues of shared interest and cooperation and also areas of disagreement, but as the Prime Minister and President Xi (Jinping) have demonstrated, we increase our understanding of one another when we approach these conversations with candour and respect.”
She added: “Those frank and constructive discussions can help us make meaningful progress for the benefit of our two countries and the wider world.”
Welcoming her in Beijing’s opulent state building, the Chinese vice-president said an “important consensus” had been reached during Sir Keir’s visit earlier this year after the two leaders agreed to move forward with a “comprehensive strategic dialogue” – a framework for deepening cooperation amid heightened geopolitical volatility.
“Their important consensus has opened a new chapter for bilateral ties,” Mr Han said.
“We need to intensify interactions and strengthen dialogue and cooperation for the sake of world peace and stability and for the growth of our respective economies.”
He said “shouldering our responsibilities as major countries” together and moving steadily forward with strategic ties would bring “great benefits to our two countries as well as the entire world”.
Critics have pressured Labour to take a harder line on Beijing including over issues like the treatment of the Uighur population and the imprisonment of British citizen Jimmy Lai, which the Foreign Secretary is likely to raise during her visit.
But the Government sees engagement with major economies like China as key to protecting Britain’s security at a time of heightened global instability, insisting the UK will cooperate where it can and challenge where it must.
Despite the efforts to thaw what Sir Keir has dubbed a diplomatic “ice age” between the two countries in recent years, the Foreign Office delegation are travelling with “burner” phones throughout the trip in a sign of ongoing concerns over Chinese espionage.
Ms Cooper later paid a cultural visit to the Forbidden City, where she was shown around the world’s largest imperial palace complex by a tour guide before meeting her counterpart Wang Yi for further talks at Diaoyutai State Guest House.
She will later fly to Shenzhen, a major technology hub, where she said she would discuss potential trade links for the future but also “the challenges of the future of AI as it rapidly changes our world”.
After concluding her China visit on Wednesday, the Foreign Secretary will travel to Delhi to meet her Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday.
Those bilateral talks are also expected to include discussion of the Middle East, with a focus on maritime security as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and amid ongoing escalation around the key global shipping lane.
