The formal conversation was the first between the pair since Starmer won power last month, and was also the first official call between a British leader and Xi since March 2022.
The chat comes amid a period of strained relations between London and Beijing over espionage allegations and Beijing's tightening control over former British colony Hong Kong.
The two remain major trading partners, however, and are both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
According to a Downing Street readout of the call, Starmer noted hope that he and Xi "would be able to have open, frank and honest discussions to address and understand areas of disagreement when necessary".
Such issues include "Hong Kong, Russia's war in Ukraine and human rights," the readout said.
China was Britain's fifth-largest trading partner as of 2023, according to UK statistics, but diplomatic relations were icy under Starmer's predecessor Rishi Sunak.
Soon after taking office in October 2022, Sunak declared an end to the so-called "golden era" of UK-China relations trumpeted by former prime minister David Cameron.
Sunak characterised China as a "systemic challenge" to UK values.
Espionage allegations have since presented additional hurdles to repairing relations, with Beijing saying in June that MI6 recruited Chinese state employees to spy for the UK.
That came after British police in April charged two men under the UK's counter-espionage Official Secrets Act, accusing them of spying for China.
Xi emphasised to Starmer that China aimed to "make mutual benefits and common wins the fundamental tone of China-UK relations", according to state broadcaster CCTV's report of the phone call.
His comments also appeared to call for resetting the relationship.
"China is willing to conduct equal dialogue with the UK side on the basis of mutual respect... (and) expand cooperation in the fields of finance, green economy, artificial intelligence, etc," Xi was quoted as saying.
Xi also congratulated Starmer on becoming prime minister following his Labour party's thumping general election win over the Conservatives on July 4, CCTV said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang was the first senior leader from the country to publicly congratulate Starmer, two days after the Labour leader entered office.
Friday's phone call -- which CCTV said came at Starmer's invitation -- is the first to be reported between top Chinese and British leaders since Xi spoke with former prime minister Boris Johnson on March 25, 2022.
- 'Consistent' relationship -
Xi told Starmer that "China attaches great importance to the UK side's wish to strengthen contact and dialogue", CCTV said.
He added that China is "willing to maintain exchanges with the United Kingdom at all levels, promote the steady and long-term development of China-UK relations, and work together to promote world peace and development".
The Downing Street readout said the leaders discussed "potential areas of cooperation... including on trade, the economy and education" and "agreed on the importance of close working in areas, such as climate change and global security".
The statement added they also agreed "on the need for a stable and consistent UK-China relationship, including dialogue between their respective foreign and domestic ministers".
The Guardian newspaper reported earlier this month that Britain's top diplomat, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, is planning to visit China in September.
Top Biden advisor Sullivan to visit China as US elections loom
Washington (AFP) Aug 23, 2024 -
Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security advisor, will visit China next week in a new bid to manage tensions months before US elections, the White House said Friday.
Sullivan will travel to Beijing from August 27 to 29 in the first visit by a US national security advisor to China since 2016, although other senior officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have visited over the past two years.
The visit comes months ahead of US elections in November. The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, would be expected, if she wins, to continue Biden's approach of seeking dialogue with China while also maintaining pressure.
Her Republican rival Donald Trump has vowed, at least rhetorically, to take a harder line, with some of his aides seeing a far-reaching global showdown with China.
A senior US official told reporters that the Biden administration's engagement with China did not indicate any softening of approach and that it continued to believe that "this is an intensely competitive relationship."
"We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps on tech and national security that we need to take," the official said, referring to sweeping restrictions on US technology transfers to China imposed under Biden.
"We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and preventing it from veering into conflict," she added, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
A key area of friction has been Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy which Beijing considers its territory and has not ruled out "reuniting" through force.
China has kept up its saber-rattling since the inauguration this year of President Lai Ching-te, whose party emphasizes Taiwan's separate identity.
"We're going to raise concern about the PRC's increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure in Taiwan," the administration official said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
"These activities are destabilizing, risk escalation, and we're going to continue to urge Beijing to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taipei," she said.
The official said Sullivan would also discuss the South China Sea, where tension has been rising between China and US ally the Philippines.
- Key role -
The official did not indicate that the United States expected breakthroughs on the trip, in which Sullivan will meet with China's foreign policy supremo Wang Yi.
The official said Sullivan will reiterate US concerns about China's support for Russia in its major expansion of its defense industry since the Ukraine invasion. Beijing counters that, unlike the United States, it does not directly give weapons to either side.
China has historically been eager to work with US national security advisors, seeing them as decision-makers close to the president who can negotiate away from the media spotlight that comes with the secretary of state or top leadership.
The modern US-China relationship was launched when Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor to Richard Nixon, secretly visited Beijing in 1971 to lay the groundwork for normalization of relations with the communist state.
Sullivan and Wang have met four times over the last year and a half -- once in Washington and the other times in Vienna, Malta and Bangkok -- as well as alongside Biden and President Xi Jinping at their November summit in California.
The meetings between Wang and Sullivan were sometimes announced only after they were finished and the two had spent long hours together behind closed doors.
Sullivan will also speak to Wang about North Korea and the Middle East. China has criticized US support for Israel, and the United States has sought to call Beijing's bluff by urging it to use its relations to rein in Iran.
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