Theresa May to emphasise value of EU and Nato to Trump

Prime minister will be the first foreign leader to meet with the new US president

 

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Theresa May will urge Donald Trump not to undermine European unity when she meets him in Washington within days, insisting that Britain sees a strong EU as a crucial partner on both economic and security issues.

 

 

 

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The White House announced on Saturday that Mrs May would meet with Mr Trump on Friday, making her the first foreign leader to meet with him since the inauguration, with a visit from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto scheduled for later this month. Mrs May’s team had previously described as “speculation” reports that the prime minister would meet with Mr Trump as early as next week; she had been expected to make the trip in February.

 

Mrs May told the Financial Times in an interview that she expected to have “very frank” discussions with the new president when she visits Washington, saying honesty was a key element of what she believed would be “a very special relationship”.

 

The British prime minister said she wanted to make early progress towards a US-UK trade deal, but she also made it clear that she did not share Mr Trump’s insouciant approach to the possibility of the EU starting to disintegrate.

 

Speaking at the end of a week in which she set out for the first time her plan for Brexit, Mrs May said: “The decision taken by the UK was not a decision about breaking up the EU. I want the EU to continue to be strong and I want to continue to have a close and strategic partnership with the EU. It is important for security issues. With the threats we face it’s not the time for less co-operation.”