On September 9, Ambassador Liu Xiaoming called on David Lidington MP, Minister of State of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office responsible for European issues.

Ambassador Liu said that the bilateral relations and cooperation between China, the largest developing country, and Europe, the largest group of developed countries, are of global strategic significance. China and Europe have no fundamental conflict of interests. As they are complementary in development and share common grounds in many important international and regional issues, closer bilateral ties are in the interest of both sides. The Ambassador hoped that the United Kingdom, as an important EU member, would play an active role in EU to promote the further development of China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

Lidington agreed with Ambassador Liu's comments, saying that UK, as a staunch advocate for free trade, is ready to promote, with its influence in EU, the continuous open dialogue and cooperation between China and Europe, to help the two sides achieve more results in trade, economy and other fields and jointly build the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

The two sides also exchanged views on the strengthening of China-UK exchanges and cooperation.