MOSCOW (Sputnik) – UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field arrived in Hong Kong to meet with senior officials of the Chinese special administrative region.
"Hong Kong is of great importance to the UK, and our long-standing commitment to Hong Kong as co-signatory of the Joint Declaration [of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong] is as strong as ever," Field was quoted as saying in the statement.
"The UK remains committed to strengthening its deep and wide-ranging relationship with Hong Kong across a number of areas, including trade and investment, education, culture, innovation and technology, and I look forward to discussing these issues and more during my visit," Field stated.
On December 19, 1984, Prime Minister of China Zhao Ziyang and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration. According to the declaration, sovereignty over Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong became a special Chinese administrative region with a high degree of autonomy in compliance with "one country, two systems" principle.
