UK looking forward to Belt, Road summit in Beijing

British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward said Friday the UK is looking forward to the One Belt, One Road summit to be held in Beijing in May, as her country looks to enhance participation in global trade after deciding to quit the EU.

“We are leaving the EU … This represents the opportunity for Britain to be truly global, we look forward to developing partnerships with all countries, but in particular, China is very important in that,” she said.

“We’ve already got the infrastructure alliance with China, and companies are working together in Pakistan,” Woodward told reporters, noting Britain is the first major Western country to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

After President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK in October 2015, the China-UK relations have entered a “Golden Era,” with the trade and investment between the two countries reaching around 55 billion pounds ($68.92 billion).

The exchanges of people has grown significantly, said Woodward, as now there are about 5,000 British students in China and more than 160,000 Chinese students in the UK.

The year 2017 marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment bilateral relations at ambassadorial level between China and the UK.

However, she declined to confirm whether Prime Minister Theresa May will attend the Belt, Road summit in Beijing, saying instead that she will visit China later this year.

The terror attack on March 22 in London, which left four people dead and several injured – including one Chinese – has put the security of the UK under spotlight again, with Woodward saying the UK and China are working together on counterterrorism.

“We are both concerned about the source of terrorism from foreign fighters, we see our nationals going and getting trained and then coming back to our countries as terrorists,” she noted.