US envoy says Trump eyes immediate visit to UK after Brexit
US President Donald Trump is mulling a visit to the United Kingdom immediately after the country leaves the European Union in March.
The US ambassador to London, Woody Johnson, said on Monday that a state visit by Trump to the UK will be highly possible to take place in May, more than a month after Brexit.
Trump visited the UK last year amid widespread public protests as authorities were forced to make the visit an informal one. Nonetheless, the US president met Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the UK during the trip in July.
Johnson said a formal Trump’s visit to the UK, as promised last year by British Prime Minister Theresa May, would be better to coincide with ceremonies in the country to mark the end of the Second World War.
“Between you and me, I think that would be a good time,” said the US envoy while speaking to the BBC Radio, adding, “I would think the President would be in favor of it and looking forward to it because that was mentioned when he was over here, so if we can do that it would be, I think, a big positive.”
The envoy said the visit could give Trump an opportunity to pursue his view that Washington and London should reach a “quick, very massive bilateral trade deal” after Brexit.
However, he reiterated White House’s position that a current draft Brexit deal negotiated between May’s government and the EU would reduce chances for such a massive US-UK trade pact.
Commenting on the increasing political uncertainty surrounding Brexit, Johnson said that UK political establishment had to find a solution out of a current political stalemate in the parliament.
“The country is in need of leadership,” he said while referring to the British parliament’s planned vote in mid-January on the withdrawal agreement signed between the UK and the EU last months.
Many expect the House of Commons would reject May’s Brexit deal, forcing the premier to bring the UK out of the EU on March 29, 2019, without an agreement that could outline divorce terms as well as the future bilateral relationship.
Trump has already criticized May’s Brexit agreement, saying it would be more in favor of the EU and would make it hard for the US to expand its trade partnership with Britain.
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