British energy secretary to visit China in March to restart energy talks, sources say

British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will visit China in March to restart talks on energy cooperation and meet Chinese investors, three sources with direct knowledge of the plan said, as the Labour government seeks closer China ties amid worsening U.S.- and EU-China relations.

The sources, who were not authorised to speak to media, said Miliband will visit Beijing on March 17-19, which Reuters is reporting for the first time.

British officials have said they want to recalibrate many of the previous Conservative Party-led government's positions on China, particularly around accepting Chinese job-creating investment and allowing Chinese firms to provide critical infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power will still be off the table when Miliband is expected to sit down on March 17 with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Hongzhi, to revive the UK-China Energy Dialogue, two of the sources said. Collaboration in other forms of clean and sustainable energy, as well as energy security, will be on the agenda instead.

Miliband will also pitch Britain to Chinese private investors at a roundtable meeting, said one of the sources, adding that his schedule was still being finalised.

"We do not comment on speculation on the Secretary of State's travel," the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said in response to a Reuters request for comment. "We will set out any plans in the usual way."

The Labour government, in power in Britain since July, has made improving ties with China one of its main foreign policy goals, after a period when relations plunged to their lowest levels in decades under successive Conservative governments.

In 2022, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed off on providing around 700 million pounds ($880 million) to buy out China General Nuclear in a nuclear power project in the south west of England after some British lawmakers expressed concerns about China's involvement in the country's nuclear industry.

Britain has refrained from following the U.S. and Europe in slapping import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles over accusations its automakers benefit from unfair state subsidies and have overcapacity.

Chinese automakers BYD and Chery both sell into the UK market, while XPeng plans to launch its cars in Britain later this year.

BYD also manufacturers London's iconic red double-decker buses, while a subsidiary of Geely makes the city's famous black taxi cabs.

Miliband will be the third Labour minister to visit China since Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office, following Foreign Secretary David Lammy's trip in October and finance minister Rachel Reeves' visit in January.

Starmer is also expected to visit China later this year, sources said, in the first trip to the country by a British leader since 2018.

China's foreign minister Wang Yi earlier this month made his first official visit to Britain in a decade.

Reuters reported last week that Britain has lined up a new Mandarin-speaking diplomat to help rebuild its China ties.

China is Britain's fifth-largest trading partner and accounts for 5.2% of UK trade, with the world's second-largest economy taking in 32 billion pounds ($40 billion) worth of UK goods last year.

($1 = 0.7948 pounds)