Tony Blair says Britain intends to be 'best western partner' of China

LONDON - Britain intends to become the best western partner of China and is helping build the relationship between China and the West as a whole, Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

Speaking of Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to Britain, Blair told Xinhua in a recent interview: "I expect President Xi's visit will strengthen the relationships still further between Britain and China at the political level, at the economic level and at the people-to-people level."

"I think this is really building on what has happened over these past ten years, looking forward to the next ten, and seeing that this relationship between Britain and China is vitally important for both countries," he said.

Blair, a British Labour Party politician, served as Britain's Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. He was the British head of government hosting China's then Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao during their state visits to Britain in 1999 and 2005 respectively.

It was also under Blair's premiership that Britain and China established their comprehensive strategic partnership in 2004.

"I started strengthening the partnership with China, the present prime minister (David Cameron) is strengthening it still further. So there is consistency and agreement across the political spectrum in the UK that China's relationship with Britain matters," he said.

Noting that most people in Britain support a strong relationship with China, the former prime minister stressed that Britain is "enthusiastic about developing the ties with China even further and making sure that next decade is a golden decade."

In the interview, Blair expressed the hope that Britain and China could cooperate in areas of infrastructure and finance.

"Britain urgently needs to renew its infrastructure -- power generation, things like nuclear power, and its rail network, and China has got the expertise and capital to help us. So this is very much win-win for both countries," he explained, adding that he was "looking forward to this partnership."

Apart from infrastructure, Blair said, Britain and China can both benefit from cooperation in the financial sector as well.

"We've got great opportunity to use London as a financial center that helps in the popularization, if you like, of the RMB (the Chinese yuan), and allows Britain to issue Chinese government bonds here to make sure that we are actually cooperating at the financial level," he said.

"We've joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which is important. It's got a great role to play. I was pleased that Britain decided to join it," he added.

Talking about Britain's role in EU-China relations, Blair said: "Britain is also a key player in Europe, and we've got good relationship with China. So Britain can play a role facilitating the Chinese relationship with Europe as a whole."

He argued that the strength of Britain's trade relationship with China and, increasingly, the strength of its people-to-people relationship with China offer his country the chance to help in the general European relationship.

"We intend in Britain to make ourselves the western partner for China that both understands China and is also helping build the relationship between China and the West that is so important," he said.

Looking into China's future, Blair voiced optimism over China's ability to tackle its challenges and move ahead.

"China has always got enormous challenges because of its size, because of its rapid pace of its progress. When you roll back 30 years, and you compare China then and China now, it's a transformed country," he said.

"But I think the Chinese leadership has got the strength and determination and the capability of overcoming these challenges, and it is very much in our interests that China remains stable, that China evolves in a good and effective way for the Chinese people and for the outside world," he concluded.