Last week, while attending the leaders' meeting of China and countries in Central and Eastern Europe in Bucharest, Romania, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that mutual respect is an important basis for China to develop relations with countries in Central and Eastern Europe. For China and the UK to develop a mutually beneficial and stable partnership, the two sides should also respect each other's major concerns. This is one of the lessons that the UK has learned from the past setbacks in bilateral relations.

Since October, several British cabinet ministers and the mayor of London have visited China in swift succession. Prior to this, Cameron said in the House of Commons that the British government recognizes the Tibet autonomous region as part of China, and he was seeking a "strong and positive" relationship with China. Relations seem to have bottomed out. Now, the two sides should take advantage of Cameron's visit as a favorable opportunity to actively promote bilateral cooperation to achieve greater and faster progress.

Trade and investment will continue to be the priority for their cooperation. From January to October, bilateral trade between the two countries continued to grow, reaching a total volume of $56.1 billion, and bilateral trade is expected to hit $100 billion by 2015. With the acceleration of China's urbanization and the promotion of a new round of economic reforms, the two sides can tap the great potential of cooperation in financial services, banking, healthcare and other services.

In recent years, bilateral cooperation in investment has witnessed remarkable progress. Chinese investment in the UK reached $8 billion last year, and the UK has become the fourth largest destination for Chinese investment. At the 16th China-EU Summit held in November, the start of negotiations for a China-EU Investment Agreement was announced. China and the UK should work together to make progress in the negotiations. In addition, the two sides should further encourage economic cooperation between provinces and cities.

Cultural, education and personnel exchanges should also be one of the priorities of bilateral cooperation in the coming years. Currently, China has established a high-level dialogue mechanism with the United States, Russia, the UK and the EU. The UK also has the largest number of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in Europe. All these initiatives will undoubtedly help deepen understanding between the two peoples. Britain's creative industry, which was on show at the UK Pavilion during the 2010 Shanghai Expo, impressed many Chinese people and in the future the two sides can strengthen cooperation in this industry.

Needless to say, the two sides have differences on some international issues, but they have no geopolitical conflict and maintaining regional and global peace and stability is in the fundamental interests of both sides. In fact, in the fields of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, tackling climate change, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and promoting reform of multilateral international institutions, the two sides have been engaged in important negotiations and cooperation. In the future, China and the UK should further strengthen cooperation in response to regional and international hotspot issues as well as global governance.

The author is vice-president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

(China Daily 12/02/2013 page8)