Chinese Premier to Visit Britain and Greece

Chinese Premier to Visit Britain and Greece

BEIJING, China – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will pay official visits to Britain and Greece from next Monday to Saturday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

Li, who is to attend an annual meeting with his British counterpart David Cameron, will make the visits at the invitation of Cameron and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. 

“The prime minister will meet with Premier Li and their discussion will cover a wide range of bilateral issues, including trade, investment and commercial opportunities and the energy and cultural side,” Cameron’s spokesman said.

China’s foreign ministry said Li would also meet Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and would head to Greece on his June 16-21 trip to Europe.

Cameron met Premier Li in December when the largest-ever British mission of its kind went to China to patch up relations between the world’s sixth- and second-largest economies.

A rift over Britain’s stance towards Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, prompted London to cancel a planned trip by Cameron in 2012 after Beijing said its leaders would not be free to meet him.

Ed Davey, secretary of state for energy and climate change, said, “We are very much looking forward to Premier Li’s visit. There is a detailed set of negotiation on everything in trade relations, but in particular, energy is going to be a key part of discussion.”

“When I visited Beijing last year, there was a huge interest in the offshore wind industry. We’ve also got some work that we’ve done with China on nuclear decommissioning, on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and on energy efficiency, so there is a very rich agenda. I think we will have a very full dialogue,” said Davey.

Reuters contributed to this report

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