Boris Johnson held “frank and candid” talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday morning, Downing Street confirmed, the first time the two leaders have held talks since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Prime Minister spoke with the Chinese premier for 50 minutes, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
In a read out of the call, issued later, No10 said: “The leaders discussed a range of issues of mutual interest – including the situation in the Ukraine.
“It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour. They agreed to speak again soon.”
No10 added that the Prime Minister expressed sympathy with the victims of the China Eastern Airlines jet crash earlier this week.
The read out also said that President Xi asked Mr Johnson to convey “his best wishes” to the Queen on her 70th jubilee.
Earlier a spokesman said: “Obviously, the Prime Minister has been talking with a lot of world leaders and quite regularly throughout the course of what has happened in Ukraine.
“This is part of the Prime Minister’s wider engagement with world leaders so he can set out our position on where we think the current situation is.”
It is understood the PM set out the UK’s position on Ukraine and that pressure should be put on President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops.
The last time the two leaders spoke was in October when they discussed a range of issues, including action to address the climate crisis ahead of COP26, global trade and economic cooperation, and security and human rights.
The call comes a week after Joe Biden warned China could face consequences if Beijing provided military aid to Vladimir Putin following two hours of talks with Xi.
