The British government announced after the meeting that China had agreed to relax its visa rules for British citizens traveling to the country — bringing the U.K. into line with countries including France, Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan — and allowing people visiting China from the U.K. to do so visa free. The two countries are also launching a “feasibility study” to explore whether to enter negotiations on a bilateral services agreement, a step towards closer trade ties. Starmer stressed that he also raised more difficult issues including the ongoing detention of British-Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, while an official familiar with the talks said he raised the war in Ukraine — but both declined to be drawn on the specifics of the conversation. In remarks to the press at the start of their meeting, however, both men avoided such issues and heaped praise on each other’s countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Starmer that “as leaders we should not shy away from difficulties.” | Vincent Thian/AFP via Getty ImagesDescribing the state of the world as “turbulent and fluid,” Xi said more dialogue between the two nations was “imperative,” whether “for the sake of world peace and stability or for our two countries’ economies and peoples.”