David Lammy promises to resolve the lack of bilateral dialogue blamed on his predecessors
Oct. 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Kingdom Foreign Minister, David Lammy, has advocated deepening diplomatic channels with China and has offered a position of British “coherence” after regretting the “sufficient contact” between London and Beijing under his predecessors, particularly on issues of Human Rights.
During his first official visit to the Asian giant, Lammy met with the Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, to discuss areas of cooperation, the United Kingdom’s concerns about the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the detention of British citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and Chinese military exercises near Taiwan.
Speaking to reporters in Shanghai on Saturday, Lammy explained that the meetings were “the beginning of a process”, adding that it had been important to “restart the dialogue”. “Only in dialogue can we achieve better understanding and change, and I think what is needed is more diplomacy, not less,” he stated.
Lammy is the second British Foreign Secretary to visit China in the last two years.
Conservative James Cleverly made the trip in 2023, but before that relations between the two countries had been strained, and no foreign minister had traveled to Beijing since Jeremy Hunt in 2018.
Lammy criticized the previous government’s approach to China as “inconsistent”. “What people also want is consistency. What businesses want is stability and clarity, and that is what the UK government, led by Keir Starmer, promises for this next period,” he indicated.
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