LONDON, January 27. /TASS/. Great Britain will not make a choice between preserving a special relationship with the United States and bolstering its ties with China, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Bloomberg in an exclusive interview ahead of his trip to the East Asian country.
"I’m often invited to simply choose between countries. I don’t do that. I remember when I was doing the US trade deal, and everybody put to me that I’d have to make a choice between the US and Europe, and I said, ‘I’m not making that choice’," the British prime minister said.
"We’ve got very close relations with the US — of course, we want to — and we will maintain that business, alongside security and defense. Equally, just sticking your head in the sand and ignoring China, when it’s the second-biggest economy in the world and there are business opportunities wouldn’t be sensible," he added.
Later on Tuesday, Starmer will travel to China before visiting Japan with a delegation of secretaries and business leaders. In all, roughly 60 British chief executives will accompany him in Beijing, The Times reported. Starmer will embark on the first UK prime minister’s trip to Beijing since 2018 when Theresa May signed deals in the Chinese capital.
The upcoming visit could revive a "golden era" in relations between Britain and China amid a turbulent geopolitical situation, the newspaper wrote.