The British statement released Friday said only that this is “as an area which the U.K. and China must engage, even where viewpoints diverge.”
That’s a far cry from Labour’s position in opposition. As Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lammy told POLITICO last March Labour would pursue legal routes towards declaring China’s crackdown on Uighur Muslims a “genocide” by acting “multilaterally with our partners” through international courts.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said a determination on genocide would be something for “competent international courts” to decide on. When pressed on Lammy’s remarks in opposition, they said they “can’t speak to comments that predate the government administration.”
“The meeting was constructive across the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, from areas of pragmatic cooperation to issues of contention,” the British foreign office said in its statement Friday, adding that the two sides agreed to maintain “channels of communication” at ministerial level.
The British government, the statement said, believes there’s room for the two countries to work together on green power and artificial intelligence.
