British diplomat tours China
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A visiting British diplomat said Wednesday that the new UK government seeks to enhance its ties with China through grass-root diplomacy as well as government-level dialogue.
"China and Britain are both countries among the richest nations in terms of GDP. So it is important for us to have relations on a whole range of issues," said Jeremy Browne, the visiting minister of state at the foreign office, in a news briefing in Beijing, reiterating that the nature of dialogue between the two powers is not confrontational but cooperative.
The 40-year-old minister, who visited Beijing for the first time, said the potential for strengthening the relationship goes beyond the government-to-government level and expands to partnerships in areas such as sports, education and bilateral trade.
He visited the Bird's Nest and the Olympic Green Wednesday morning to "learn from the extraordinary success of the Beijing Olympics and its legacy" with the same excitement as "seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time."
"The London Olympics is being done with a keen eye on the (Beijing) legacy," he said. The apartments for the Olympians (like in Beijing) will be sold and provide new accommodations for that part of London after the Olympic Games have finished.
Since their appointments in May, a couple of key political figures of the British government have visited China, including Foreign Secretary William Hague and Financial Minister George Osborne. An official visit by Prime Minister David Cameron is due to take place in November.
"The Sino-UK relationship is one of the steadiest among China's relations with all the world powers. One major reason is that both governments have adopted a very practical attitude and focused on economic development," Yang Fang, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times. "The new government has adopted the diplomatic tradition and continues to optimize the ties."
Before coming to Beijing, the minister toured Shanghai for the World Expo and attended a justice and law week there. He also traveled by train to Ningbo and spoke to students on the branch campus of the University of Nottingham, where he had studied at the campus in the UK.
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