Beijing:

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday congratulated new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on his election, state media reported, the first senior leader in Beijing to do so publicly.

China is “willing to work with the new UK government to consolidate mutual political trust and expand mutually beneficial cooperation”, Li told Starmer, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Their call came after days of silence from top officials in Beijing, with the Chinese foreign ministry saying only that it noted the results of the UK election. 

By comparison, Chinese leader Xi Jinping congratulated Iran’s incoming president Masoud Pezeshkian just hours after his election on Saturday.

China was Britain’s fifth-largest trading partner as of 2023, according to the UK Department for Business and Trade.

But diplomatic relations between the two countries have been icy in recent years, with Beijing and London sparring over tightening communist control in former British colony Hong Kong.

The two sides have also traded accusations of espionage, with Beijing saying last month that MI6 had recruited Chinese state employees to spy for the UK.

Xinhua on Sunday said Li told Starmer that the “strengthening of bilateral coordination and cooperation was in the interests of both sides”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

China’s Premier Li Qiang waves as he arrives at Adelaide Airport on June 15, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Australia on June 15 on a relations-mending mission with panda diplomacy, rock lobsters and China’s global dominance in the critical minerals sector high on the agenda.

His visit is the first by a Chinese premier in seven years and is expected to pave the way for President Xi Jinping’s first journey to Australia since 2014.

This is the second leg of Mr. Li’s tour after New Zealand, and will end in Malaysia.

Premier Li’s optimistic agenda

Before leaving New Zealand, Mr. Li told an audience in Auckland on June 15 that his country was committed to creating a first-class business environment and supporting foreign enterprises to develop in China, according to Chinese state media.

Mr. Li said there was vast potential for China and New Zealand to collaborate in areas such as green development and that Beijing welcomed New Zealand enterprises, such as dairy company Fonterra, that seized such opportunities, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

During the Australian leg of his travels which ends on June 18, China’s most powerful politician after President Xi is expected to visit Adelaide Zoo in the South Australia State capital where his Air China flight landed from Auckland.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas greeted Mr. Li on the Adelaide Airport tarmac.

Mr. Li will also visit a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant in the Kwinana Beach industrial estate in Western Australia State, as well as Australia’s Parliament House in the national capital Canberra.

Resetting bilateral relations

China initiated a reset of the bilateral relationship after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party was elected in 2022.

The relationship collapsed during the previous conservative administration’s almost decade in power over legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out the national 5G network due to security concerns, and Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the causes of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beijing imposed an array of official and unofficial trade blocks in 2020 on a range of Australian exports including coal, wine, barley and wood that cost up to A$20 billion ($13 billion) a year.

All the trade bans have now been lifted except for Australian live lobster exports. Trade Minister Don Farrell predicted that impediment would also be lifted soon after Mr. Li’s visit with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

“I’d be very confident that the visit this week will result in a very successful outcome for lobster producers,” Mr. Farrell told reporters on June 12.

Economic and security concerns

Many observers expect Australia will be more cautious about its future economic relationship with China after being subjected to what many see as economic coercion in recent years.

Australian National University’s China expert Benjamin Herscovitch describes an “emerging expectations gap” between Beijing and Canberra.

“Beijing, now that the coercion campaign is over, wants to … turn the page and launch into a more expansive, more positive, more cooperative bilateral relationship,” Mr. Herscovitch said.

“Canberra’s saying: Look. Hold on. We want the trade restrictions gone and we want high-level diplomacy restored. But we’re not interested in deeper science and technology cooperation with China because we see that potentially from an Australian point of view as a security threat,” Mr. Herscovitch added.

Mr. Li intends to visit Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia’s processing plant south of the Western Australia capital Perth on June 18 to underscore China’s interest in investing in critical minerals, news media have reported. The plant produces battery-grade lithium hydroxide for electric vehicles.

Australia shares the United States’ concerns over China’s dominance in the critical minerals, which are essential components in the world’s transition to renewable energy sources.

Citing Australia’s national interests, Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five Chinese-linked companies to divest their shares in the rare earth mining company, Northern Minerals.

Less controversially, Mr. Li is expected to make a visit Adelaide Zoo on June 16, which has been the home of China-born giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009.

The Adelaide Advertiser newspaper has reported Mr. Li will announce the pandas will be replaced by another breeding pair after they return to China in November.

While the bilateral economic relationship is recovering from plumbing new lows in recent years, the security relationship between the two free trading partners appears more tense.

An annual poll by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute foreign policy think tank released in June found 53% of Australian respondents saw China as more of a security threat than an economic partner.

Mr. Albanese has said he will raise with Mr. Li during an annual leaders’ meeting on June 17 recent clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea which Australia argues endangered Australian personnel.

Other diplomatic engagements

The premier spent three days in New Zealand, a free trade partner with which China has enjoyed a more harmonious relationship than it has with Australia. Mr. Li described China and New Zealand as “good friends.” His next stop will be Malaysia, where bilateral relations are further complicated by competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Mr.Li on June 15 : “China is one of New Zealand’s most important and consequential relationships.”

Mr. Li used the trip to express concerns at New Zealand’s contemplation of joining a military technology-sharing arrangement under Australia’s AUKUS pact with the United States and Britain. The pact’s primary aim is to provide Australia with a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on November 1 he will raise the plight of a detained democracy blogger with Chinese leaders during a state visit to China.

Mr. Albanese said he had approved a draft letter to the sons of Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China since 2019.

“We’re very sympathetic and understand the concerns that they would have for their father and for this Australian who has been detained now for a long period of time,” Mr. Albanese told reporters.

The sons have made public a letter to Mr. Albanese, dated October 28, that said there was a “narrow window of opportunity” before Mr. Albanese left for China to secure their father’s freedom.

“We ask that you make it clear that it is not possible to stabilise the bilateral relationship with a government that is holding an Australian citizen just a few kilometres south of where you will be hosted,” the brothers added, referring to Beijing.

They said they had just last week received the first letter Yang had been allowed to send from detention. Yang wrote: “I’m sick, I’m weak, I’m dying.” Yang, who once worked for China’s Ministry of State Security, is still awaiting a verdict from his closed-door trial on espionage charges in May 2021.

His sons are 24 and 31 years old. Family friend Feng Chongyi said the sons had not been publicly identified because they feared Chinese retaliation for their father’s activities. Feng said Mr. Albanese becoming the first Australian Prime Minister in seven years to visit China created an opportunity for Yang.

“It’s not the last chance, but it’s the best chance,” Feng said. “The visit symbolises the complete normalisation of relations between the two countries.” Mr. Albanese’s visit that begins on Saturday is a sign that bilateral relations have improved since his centre-left government was elected last year following nine years of conservative rule.

Mr. Albanese will meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai during the three-day visit.

Mr. Albanese raised the plights of Yang and another detained Australian, journalist Cheng Lei, in his first meeting with Xi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia a year ago. Cheng was deported last month in what many saw as Beijing clearing the way for Mr. Albanese’s visit.

Yang’s sons wrote that said they had been “inspired by the wonderful news” of Cheng’s release. They hoped Australian authorities could “achieve a second miracle by saving our father”. Asked about Cheng’s case, Mr. Albanese told reporters: “Every case is … different.”

PM Modi, President Biden welcome progress in defence ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed the completion of the notification process in the U.S. Congress on August 29 for a commercial agreement between General Electric Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) to manufacture GE F-414 jet engines in India and the commencement of the negotiations. The leaders lauded the settlement of the seventh and last outstanding World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute between the two countries.

Ukraine war unlikely to end in immediate future: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Efforts to build a peaceful world are faltering and the Ukraine conflict is unlikely to end in the immediate future, said Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres here on Friday. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the G-20 summit that will begin here on Saturday, Mr. Guterres laid out the concerns of the UN and said the world cannot “go on like this” and spoke forcefully seeking change of the global multilateral institutions. He also appreciated India for placing the “development agenda at the centre” of G-20.

New Delhi declaration ‘almost ready’, says India’s G-20 Sherpa, as Ukraine para remains sticking point

The joint declaration is “almost ready”, said India’s G-20 ‘Sherpa’ Amitabh Kant, indicating that the Sherpas or leaders’ representatives for G-20 countries will now hand over the document to G-20 leaders who begin their summit on September 9 in an effort to close the gaps, mainly over the paragraph on Ukraine. Mr. Kant also downplayed issues with China during the negotiations, and said that while all countries have a “veto power” over the joint statement to be issued, India had been able to bring “every single country” on board with its priorities.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang lands in India facing first international test

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in New Delhi on Friday evening for the G-20 summit, which will, for the relatively unknown second-ranked Chinese leader, mark a first major international diplomatic test. Mr. Li earlier this week attended the East Asia Summit in Jakarta, but the G-20 will pose its own challenges with its higher profile and the presence of Western leaders who have been sharply critical of China, especially for its stand on the Ukraine crisis, a major sticking point that threatens to derail a joint communique for the first time in G-20 history.

We have a lot to bring to G-20 table, says African Union chief Azali Assoumani

The African Union (AU) is confident of becoming a full member of G-20 during the Delhi summit beginning in New Delhi on September 9, said AU Chairperson Azali Assoumani. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Mr. Assoumani, who is also the President of Comoros, said member countries of G-20 should invest in industrialisation of Africa. Assuring the members that Africa is willing to do what it takes to deal with the immigration issue being faced by the European countries, he urged the G-20 economies to utilise African resources to manufacture products in Africa. 

Criminal trials ideally need dynamic judges not taciturn ones, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said criminal trials ideally need active and dynamic judges rather than reticent or taciturn ones. “Reticence may be good in many circumstances, but a judge remaining mute during trial is not an ideal situation. A taciturn judge may be the model caricatured in public mind. But there is nothing wrong in his becoming active or dynamic during trial so that criminal justice being the end could be achieved,” a three-judge Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, J.B. Pardiwala and P.K. Mishra highlighted.

India committed to Global South, says PM Modi after talks with Mauritian leader

In his first bilateral meeting ahead of the G20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held talks with his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth in New Delhi and reiterated India’s commitment to furthering the voice of the Global South. “PM @KumarJugnauth and I had a very good meeting. This is a special year for India-Mauritius relations as we mark 75 years of diplomatic ties between our nations. We discussed cooperation in sectors like infrastructure, FinTech, culture and more. Also reiterated India’s commitment to furthering the voice of the Global South,” Mr. Modi said on X.

Six Opposition CMs may skip G-20 dinner hosted by President

The G-20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu is expected to have a thin attendance of Opposition leaders as Chief Ministers of at least six out of the 12 Opposition-ruled States are likely to skip the event for various reasons. The two former Prime Ministers, Manmohan Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda, also won’t be attending the dinner, citing poor health. According to sources, out of four Congress Chief Ministers, three — Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Siddaramaiah of Karnataka and Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh — are not heading for Delhi. Mr. Gehlot, it is learnt, is still nursing his fractured toes and has restricted travel. Mr. Baghel too has said that he is not well enough to travel to the capital. Mr. Siddaramaiah has given similar reasons.

Unions allege ‘scam in import of fuel for power plants’

Trade unions in the power sector have alleged that recent directions and statements of the Centre related to the import of coal for thermal power generation are contradictory, misguiding, deceitful and against the interest of the energy consumers, people and the nation. All India Coal Workers’ Federation (AICWF) and Electricity Employees Federation of India (EEFI), the two federations comprised of several unions in power and coal mining sectors, said on Friday that these moves favour one or two private companies. The federations are also mulling legal action against the Centre’s decision. 

PM Modi, Sheikh Hasina hold talks on diversifying India-Bangladesh cooperation

A day before the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8 held talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on diversifying bilateral cooperation and discussed issues such as connectivity and commercial linkages. In a post on his second bilateral of the day after holding talks with Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Mr. Modi said he had “productive deliberations” with PM Sheikh Hasina. “The progress in India-Bangladesh relations in the last 9 years has been very gladdening. Our talks covered areas like connectivity, commercial linkage and more,” Mr. Modi said.

India ‘very important’, but it is for members to decide on its UNSC membership, says Antonio Guterres

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on September 8 described India as “the country of the world” and a “very important” partner in the multilateral system but said it is for the members and not him to decide on its UN Security Council membership. Addressing a press conference here ahead of the G20 Summit, he made a strong pitch for immediate reforms to UNSC and other multilateral institutions, as he asserted that the future of the world is multipolar but “our multilateral institutions reflect a bygone age”.

INDIA wins four seats, BJP three in Assembly bypolls

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Gyanvapi survey: ASI granted further four weeks’ time to submit report

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Nancy Pelosi says she’ll seek House reelection in 2024, dismissing talk of retirement at age 83

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on September 8 that she will run for reelection to another term in Congress as Democrats work to win back the majority in 2024. Ms. Pelosi made the announcement before labor allies in the San Francisco area district she has represented for more than 35 years. “Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery,” Ms. Pelosi, 83, said in a tweet. “Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote.”

Will hold free, inclusive and credible election: Bangladesh Minister

Bangladesh will hold a “free, inclusive and credible election”, assured Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen here on Friday. Speaking at the end of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mr. Momen said the upcoming election would not be held under a caretaker government and said the two Prime Ministers discussed “regional peace and stability”. Sharing details about the meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India had welcomed “Indo-Pacific outlook” of Bangladesh that the Sheikh Hasina government introduced earlier this year.

U.S. Open | Bopanna creates history as the oldest doubles finalist in Open Era

India’s doubles ace Rohan Bopanna, who is playing some of the best tennis of his career, became the oldest Grand Slam doubles finalist in the Open Era as he, partnering Matthew Ebden, reached the U.S. Open final. Producing outstanding tennis at the Flushing Meadows in front of a handsome Louis Armstrong crowd, Bopanna and Ebden defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in Thursday’s semifinals to set a summit clash against Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

Stokes, Buttler help England post 291-6 against New Zealand in first match of ODI series

Ben Stokes marked his return to one-day internationals with a half-century before captain Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone put on a rapid stand of 77 late in the innings to help push England to 291-6 against New Zealand in the first match of the Cricket World Cup warmup series on Friday. Stokes (52) opted to come out of ODI retirement ahead of England’s World Cup title defense in India starting next month and was one of four batters to post fifties on a tough track at Sophia Gardens.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday, announced that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi, instead of President Xi Jinping. The ministry released an official statement on its website.

Here are 5 facts about Chinese Premier Li Qiang