BEIJING: China is ready to boost economic ties with the United Kingdom, Vice Premier He Lifeng said Wednesday, state media reported, as part of a diplomatic thaw following years of frosty relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Keir Starmer resumed high-level contacts in August during a phone conversation, the first time Xi spoke to a British prime minister since 2022.

On Wednesday, He spoke by phone with UK Finance minister Rachel Reeves and told her that Beijing is “willing to… promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation”, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China also wants to boost cooperation in finance, green economy, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, He said.

UK and China agree to deepen cooperation

For her part, Reeves said the UK is ready to strengthen cooperation with China “for the development of long-term and mutually beneficial relations between the two countries,” according to Xinhua.

In 2015 then-prime minister David Cameron hailed a “Golden Age” of ties between London and Beijing, but relations have deteriorated significantly in recent years.

The UK has been outspoken about the Hong Kong government’s new national security law, which it views as eroding the former British territory’s rights and freedoms.

The two countries have also argued over the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China’s Xinjiang region and over human rights in Tibet.

China and the UK have also accused each other of espionage and Beijing has complained that London is following Washington’s hostile line toward Beijing.