王毅北京会见英国外交大臣哈蒙德

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Beijing. The two sides spoke of important progress made in China-UK relations.

They call it the start of a golden era of China-Britain relations. Hammond is the most senior British minister to visit China since president Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain in October.

The two ministers agreed that Xi’s visit was a great success that  achieved expectations, and now both sides have the responsibility to implement the decisions and commitments made during that state visit.

"We need to further deepen practical cooperation in all fields; China is ready to work with the UK in production capacity, finance, innovation and other areas with projects involving nuclear power and high-speed railways. China supports the RMB offshore market in London and will issue at an early date an RMB denominated sovereign bond in London, the first of its kind to be issued outside China,” Wang said.

"We support Shanghai and London stock exchanges conducting stock connect visibility studies with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank formally going into operation by the middle of this month. China is ready to work with the UK under the AIIB framework.”

Wang also says China welcomes the UK Prime Minister David Cameron to China for the G20 Hangzhou summit this year.

Hammond expressed hope that China’s economy would be more open to British firms, particularly in the services sector and infrastructure construction. He said Britain has much to offer China as it internationalizes its currency. And he said he looked forward to London becoming the major center for RMB trading outside Asia.

“Minister Wang Yi already talked about our desire to link the big projects, the One Belt and One Road Project, our own Northern Powerhouse Project, the emerging Yangtze River Economic project to see how they can link together to deliver synergy. And allow enterprises from both countries to benefit from these big programs,” Hammond said.

The UK was among the first European economies to embrace the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and actively participated in the Belt and Road Initiative. It has become the main investment destination for Chinese companies.

Both sides expressed the willingness to strengthen cooperation in energy, finance and trade to deepen China-UK relations in the "golden era."