Prime Minister Keir Starmer Wednesday began a three-day visit to China where he will defend Britain's "pragmatic" partnership with the Asian giant after years of fraught relations.
It will be the first visit by a U.K. prime minister since Conservative Theresa May in 2018. Starmer will also make a brief stop in Japan to meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Starmer's visit comes after recent trips by Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and France's President Emmanuel Macron.
For Chinese President Xi Jinping, it will be an opportunity to show Beijing can be a reliable partner, at a time when President Donald Trump has rattled historic ties between the United States and its Western allies.
Starmer is battling record low popularity polls and hopes the visit can boost Britain's beleagured economy.
The official program will begin today, with a meeting at the People's Palace with Zhao Leji, the third-ranking government official and chairman of the National People's Congress.
It will be followed by a lunch with Xi and then a meeting with Premier Li Qiang.
The talks will touch upon "trade, investment and national security," Downing Street said in a statement, with Starmer promising "stability and clarity in the government's approach."
Starmer said he aims to promote "pragmatic, consistent co-operation," according to the Downing Street statement, adding that he regrets the "inconsistency" of the previous Conservative government's approach to China.
On its side, China "is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to enhance political mutual trust," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said ahead of the trip.
For Beijing, the visit "marks as another success in its strings of diplomatic efforts in normalising relationship with the U.S.'s allies," noted Yu Jie, senior research fellow at policy think tank Chatham House.
U.K.-China relations plummeted in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, which severely curtailed freedoms in the former British colony.
They soured further with both powers exchanging accusations of spying.
Since coming to power in 2024, Starmer has been at pains to reset ties with the world's second-largest economy and Britain's third-biggest trade partner.
He will be accompanied to China with some 60 business leaders from the finance, pharmaceutical, automobile and other sectors, and cultural representatives.
"As one of the world's biggest economic players, a strategic and consistent relationship with them is firmly in our national interest," insisted Starmer.
Several senior ministers, including the finance and energy ministers, have also made separate visits to China recently.
