CHINESE Foreign Minister Qian Qichen yesterday called for close co-operation between London and Beijing in the run-up to the handover and invited Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, to visit next year.
Both sides said as talks got under way in London yesterday that the visit was going well, although Mr Qian's six-car motorcade was held up in traffic for more than 10 minutes on a journey of only 300 metres.
Mr Qian told Mr Heseltine in a 40-minute meeting in the Cabinet Office that the Chinese Government welcomed the importance the British were attaching to his tour.
British sources said that he had stressed the importance of such high-level talks, saying they were a way of ensuring productive relations.
The sources said the two men agreed for the need for a smooth transition in 1997 and that the way to secure this was through ensuring 'security, stability and prosperity' in the territory.
Mr Heseltine led a team of 150 businessmen to Beijing earlier this year in a move which was seen as leading to the thaw in relations.
Mr Qian told the British side that he welcomed the fact that the UK had backed China's membership of the World Trade Organisation and said there were exciting opportunities for enhancing trading links, a statement which represents a reversal of the threat to trade with Britain voiced by Beijing at the height of the crisis over Hong Kong's democracy package.
