LONDON (Reuters) – British foreign minister James Cleverly may visit China next month, according to people with knowledge of the plans, as the two countries seek to stabilise a recent turbulent relationship that had sunk to the lowest point in decades.
Cleverly is in talks about visiting China towards the end of July, but nothing has been confirmed, according to the people, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to discuss the plans publicly.
Asked if Cleverly would accept an invite to visit China, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “obviously you wouldn’t expect me to speculate on future ministerial travel”.
“It is of course his job to engage internationally, but the Foreign Office would set that out in the normal way. In general terms, our position on China is in line with that of our closest allies, and of course you’ll know the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is travelling to Beijing in the coming days.”
Britain’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Politico reported earlier Wednesday that China had formally invited Cleverly to visit.
Any visit to China by Cleverly would be a sign of headway in attempts to improve relations after he made a wide-ranging speech in April, which was the clearest attempt to explain Britain’s new approach to the world’s second-largest economy.
Cleverly said in the speech that Britain would seek to protect itself by limiting national security threats posed by China while engaging in areas such as trade, investment and climate change.
Britain has drastically changed its approach towards China in the last eight years, moving from saying it wanted to be China’s greatest supporter in Europe to now being one of its fiercest critics.
Sunak, said in his first foreign policy speech at the end of last year that the so-called “golden era” of relations with China under former Prime Minister David Cameron was over.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Alex Richardson)
