On June 24, 2013, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held telephone talks with Foreign Secretary William Hague of UK.
Hague expressed that Britain welcomes a strong, prosperous and successful China, and hopes to see China play a more important role in international affairs. Britain attaches great importance to the relationship with China and hopes to further strengthen close exchanges with China in all fields. Britain respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China and recognizes Tibet as part of China. Britain does not support "Tibetan independence". Britain has been fully aware of the sensitivity of Tibet-related issues and is willing to properly handle the issues on the basis of respecting China's concerns.
Wang Yi said that it is the precondition for maintaining political mutual trust and developing bilateral relations between the two countries to respect and take into full account the major concerns of each other. China and Britain have broad common interests and the relationship between the two countries enjoys wide space of development. The Chinese side appreciates the British side for attaching importance to relations with China and speaks positively for Britain reaffirming the position of recognizing Tibet as part of China and not supporting "Tibetan independence". Hope the British side will do actual deeds to accumulate positive energy for the development of China-UK relations in the future. The two sides should work together to push for a healthy and steady development of China-UK relations.
Both sides as well exchanged views on improving China-UK relations, carrying out multi-level exchanges and other issues of mutual interest.
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