PM call with President Xi on 19 April 2018
Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to President Xi of China.
A Downing Street spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister called President Xi of China earlier today.
They agreed the Prime Minister’s visit to China in January had been a great success, reinvigorating our commitment to a “Golden Era” of UK-China relations and a deeper strategic partnership.
They discussed the appalling chemical weapons attack in Douma. The Prime Minister explained our strikes had been proportionate, legal and responsible, and aimed at alleviating humanitarian suffering by degrading the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and deterring their willingness to use them in the future.
The Prime Minister set out that Russia’s blocking of diplomatic action underlined the importance of the international community working together to re-establish an independent mechanism that attributes responsibility to the perpetrators of attacks such as the one in Douma.
The Prime Minister noted that the use of a nerve agent against Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury was a grave attack on the sovereign territory of the UK, and the first use of nerve agents on European soil since the Second World War. They agreed that the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, for any purposes was unacceptable.
The Prime Minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to free and fair trade, open markets and upholding and strengthening the multilateral global trading regime.
The leaders welcomed progress on deepening the UK-China trade relationship. They agreed that the UK and China would continue to work together to identify how best we can cooperate on the Belt and Road initiative across the region and ensure it meets international standards.
The Prime Minister also noted the need to recognise and respect the international law of the sea, in the context of adherence to the wider rules-based international system.