The head of a UK-China business lobby group expects Prime Minister Keir Starmer to visit China in early 2026 to build on closer bilateral ties since the Labour government came to power.
“We all very much hope that he will be here probably in the first quarter of next year,” Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Beijing on Thursday. “We think it would seal a really important development in the relationship.”
Burnett was part of a group headed by UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle that met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Wednesday. Kyle traveled to Beijing to attend the first high-level trade discussions between the two countries since 2018.
The resumption of the UK-China Joint Economic and Trade Commission talks comes as Starmer is pushing to boost economic growth in Britain, partly by increasing trade opportunities.
The package of deals Kyle is pursuing could be worth more than £1 billion over the next five years, according to a government statement on Tuesday. The release described an approach to relations with China as “pragmatic, careful and confident.”
Burnett said Kyle came with messages from Starmer but didn’t specify their content. He also indicated that it will be a tough balancing act for the UK to navigate its relationship with the US and China.
Trump, for example, has urged the European Union to ramp up tariffs on China to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table over the war in Ukraine.
Burnett said that while there hasn’t yet been pressure from the US to do things differently, balancing those two relationships would be a “hard row to hoe.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
