LONDON: Britain warned China on Tuesday that there would be serious consequences if the Sino-British declaration on Hong Kong was not honoured, saying Britain stood behind the people in the former British colony.

“The UK signed an internationally binding legal agreement in 1984 that enshrines the one country two systems rule, enshrines the basic freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and we stand four square behind that agreement, four square behind the people of Hong Kong,” Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC TV.

“There will be serious consequences if that internationally binding legal agreement were not to be honoured.”