
Denmark's Rasmussen heading to China for meetings
Lars Lokke Rasmussen's upcoming visit marks 75 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries. (EPA Images pic)
COPENHAGEN : Denmark's foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will travel to China on Saturday for high-level meetings, just days after a visit by former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen to Copenhagen drew strong condemnation from Beijing.
Rasmussen is due to meet China's foreign minister Wang Yi and trade minister Wang Wentao on a three-day visit marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, a Danish foreign ministry statement said on Thursday.
The visit comes after Tsai Ing-wen this week met Danish lawmakers and gave a speech at a democracy summit in Copenhagen that accused China of intensifying cyber-attacks and military exercises against Taiwan. She also criticised what she referred to as China's 'expansionist ambitions.'
She was attending the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, organised by former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Alliance of Democracies, seen by senior Taiwan leaders as an important venue to get Taiwan's message out to the world.
The Chinese embassy in Copenhagen criticised Denmark for hosting Tsai and said it disregarded 'international consensus on the one-China principle'.
'The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs that allow no interference by any foreign government, organisation or individual,' it said in an emailed comment.
Tsai, who is also visiting Britain this week, has become a symbol of Taiwan's defiance against China's military threats. Denmark, like most countries, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but maintains informal relations with the democratically-governed island.
'Our one-China policy remains firm, while it is clear that we do not see everything the same way, and, on some points, China poses a challenge,' said Rasmussen, who has promoted a pragmatic approach to China as foreign minister and earlier, as prime minister.
Diplomatic relations with China reached a low point after a visit by Dalai Lama to Copenhagen in 2009. Ties improved when Denmark later accepted a Chinese offer to send two pandas to Denmark as part of China's so-called 'panda diplomacy.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Xi urges South Korea's Lee to help safeguard free trade in call
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping (pic) held his first phone conversation with South Korea's newly elected President Lee Jae-myung and called for cooperation to safeguard multilateralism and free trade. Xi made the remarks in a phone call with Lee, state-run Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television reported. Lee earlier said he was set to speak with Xi by phone on Tuesday (June 10). "We should strengthen bilateral cooperation and multilateral coordination, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and ensure the stability and smoothness of global and regional industrial chains and supply chains,' Xi said, according to the CCTV report. Xi said the two countries should promote their strategic partnership to a higher level and "inject more certainty' into the regional and international landscape, the reports said. The new South Korean leader has signalled a more cautious stance on the US-China rivalry, marking a shift from predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol's foreign policy, which emphasised closer ties with Washington and a trilateral partnership with Japan. - Bloomberg


Free Malaysia Today
2 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Investors itching for progress in US-China talks
Signs of cooling wage growth could be a relief for Bank of England policymakers who are divided on the approach to further monetary policy easing. (EPA Images pic) LONDON : With precious little to report out of Sino-US trade talks in London, investors are ready to pounce on almost any sign that a thaw in the frigid relationship between the two superpowers is just around the corner. Stocks in Asia are creeping higher, as are US and European equity futures, while the dollar was also a tad firmer after President Donald Trump said he was getting 'good reports' from yesterday's meeting with China. Talks resume at 9am today at Lancaster House and markets want a deal to flesh out details around US tech export controls and those around Chinese rare earths, and of course, where the final average rate of tariffs will settle. Recent data indicates the trade war is taking a toll on both major economies, which could soon rattle other major economies. Global investors are also in the market for fresh trade deals, with about a month left before Trump's tariff pause expires. Also expected out of the UK will be an employment report with investors and the Bank of England (BoE) keen on how pay growth – a reflection of broader price pressures – fared in April. Signs of cooling wage growth could be a relief for BoE policymakers who are currently divided on the approach to further monetary policy easing. Meanwhile, the global healthcare sector was caught in the crossfire as vaccine sceptic US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr fired all members of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts. The move could be a headache for companies such as GSK, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Moderna and BioNTech as they face longer waits for vaccine approvals. Advertising firms weren't spared from scrutiny either as the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Federal Trade Commission has sought information from some of the industry's leading firms. Omnicom, WPP, Dentsu, Interpublic Group and Publicis Groupe were among those asked by the watchdog on whether advertising and advocacy groups violated antitrust laws by coordinating boycotts of certain sites. Key developments that could influence markets today include UK May British Retail Consortium sales, UK April employment data, the US 3-year Treasury note auction, and the Reserve Bank of Australia governance board meeting.


The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Asian markets extend gains as China-US talks head into second day
HONG KONG: Asian stocks squeezed out more gains Tuesday as the latest round of China-US trade talks moved into a second day, with one of Donald Trump's top advisers saying he expected 'a big, strong handshake'. There is optimism the negotiations -- which come after the US president spoke to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week -- will bring some much-needed calm to markets and ease tensions between the economic superpowers. The advances in Asian equities built on Monday's rally and followed a broadly positive day on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 edged closer to the record high touched earlier in the year. This week's meeting in London will look to smooth relations after Trump accused Beijing of violating an agreement made at a meeting of top officials last month in Geneva that ended with the two sides slashing tit-for-tat tariffs. The key issues on the agenda at the talks are expected to be exports of rare earth minerals used in a wide range of things including smartphones and electric vehicle batteries. 'In Geneva, we had agreed to lower tariffs on them, and they had agreed to release the magnets and rare earths that we need throughout the economy,' Trump's top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, told CNBC on Monday. But even though Beijing was releasing some supplies, 'it was going a lot slower than some companies believed was optimal', he added. Still, he said he expected 'a big, strong handshake' at the end of the talks. 'Our expectation is that after the handshake, any export controls from the US will be eased, and the rare earths will be released in volume,' Hassett added. He also said the Trump administration might be willing to ease some recent curbs on tech exports. The president told reporters at the White House: 'We are doing well with China. China's not easy. 'I'm only getting good reports.' Tokyo led gains in Asian markets, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington and Jakarta also well up. 'The bulls will layer into risk on any rhetoric that publicly keeps the two sides at the table,' said Pepperstone's Chris Weston. 'And with the meeting spilling over to a second day, the idea of some sort of loose agreement is enough to underpin the grind higher in US equity and risk exposures more broadly.' Investors are also awaiting key US inflation data this week, which could impact the Federal Reserve's monetary policy amid warnings Trump's tariffs will refuel inflation strengthening the argument to keep interest rates on hold. However, it also faces pressure from the president to cut rates, with bank officials due to make a decision at their meeting next week. While recent jobs data has eased concerns about the US economy, analysts remain cautious. 'Tariffs are likely to remain a feature of US trade policy under President Trump,' said Matthias Scheiber and John Hockers at Allspring Global Investments. 'A strong US consumer base was helping buoy the global economy and avoid a global recession.' However, they also warned: 'The current global trade war coupled with big spending cuts by the US government and possibly higher US inflation could derail US consumer spending to the point that the global economy contracts for multiple quarters.' Key figures at around 0230 GMT Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 38,473.97 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 24,275.16 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,405.64 Euro/dollar: DOWN $1.1394 from $1.1420 on Monday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3530 from $1.3552 Dollar/yen: UP at 145.14 yen 144.60 yen Euro/pound: DOWN 84.21 from 84.27 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.5 percent at $65.61 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.5 percent at $67.37 per barrel New York - Dow: FLAT at 42,761.76 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,832.28 (close)