2015年CRI Chinese President's Visit to UK Expected to Strengthen Ties（在线收听）

Dr. Robin Niblett is the Director of Chatham House, a london-based international-affairs think tank.

He says Sino-British relations are currently in the best shape in history.

He attributes it largely to the booming bilateral trade.

"It is the economics that are driving the quality of the relationship right now. The United Kingdom is on a big push to increase its exports to emerging markets, and the biggest emerging market obviously is China. And the one country with which the UK has really increased its exports in the last five years has been with China, doubled from some seven billion pounds to about 15 billion pounds in this period. So the export relationship is very important."

Dr. Niblett says the UK is seeking more direct investment from China into major UK infrastructure projects, covering areas such as energy, airports, and railways.

Besides economic cooperation, Dr. Robin says during the meetings of the two countries' leaders, the issue of climate change is also expected to top the agenda.

"I think we may see some bigger discussions about the climate change negotiations that will take place in Paris in December, where President Xi and President Obama had made some quite strong announcements. The British government is part of the EU, which is the other part of the triangle in a way on climate change. This could also be a big feature. "

The most important goal, according to Dr. Niblett, is to keep the path of cooperation between the two governments while solving differences by dialogues.

"The message I want to give is that in this visit of Xi Jinping, we will see lots of golden opportunities, win-win economics, but we must remember that underneath it, are some areas of potential tension that could always pop up in the future. And that both governments, will need to work hard to make sure the win-win is the dominant part, and the negatives do not slip into it."

President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, will be hosted at Buckingham Palace, the royal residence in London, during their stay in the UK.

This will mark the first UK state visit for a Chinese leader in a decade since President Hu Jintao visited Britain in 2005.