London, June 4: United States President Donald Trump has on Tuesday promised the United Kingdom (UK) a substantial post-Brexit trade agreement with the US, making clever remarks to outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying she should stay around to settle her proposed Brexit deal even though she is due to resign in coming two days.
May and Trump held discussions related to a wide range of issues over climate change, Chinese tech giant Huawei’s participation in the next-generation 5G network. British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was among those senior ministers who attended the meeting, where the major issue of climate change was discussed.
According to Reuters news reports, the US president praised two main leaders of Brexit, Nigel Farage, and Boris Johnson, and Trump’s advisers called on the UK’s next PM to bar Chinese tech giant Huawei from developing the next-generation 5G network.
During a meeting in St James’s Palace, Trump told British PM, “We’ll have a very, very substantial trade deal, it’ll be a very fair deal, and I think it’s something we both want to do.”
Trump added, “I don’t know exactly what your timing is, but stick around. Let’s do this deal.” May is due to step down as the leaders of the UK conservative party on Friday, and will remain as the PM while the elections will be held to replace her.
May stated Washington and Britain should initiate working together to keep up markets free, fair and open.
The US president praised ex-foreign secretary and leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson and advised to withdraw Britain from the European Union (EU) as scheduled on October 31 with or without agreement. He also called for arch-Brexiteer Farage to conduct dialogues with the bloc.
Trump has told its European allies to ban Huawei and prevent its equipment use, citing the company posses a threat to the national and regional security and that the Chinese government would use the firm to spy over sensitive data and communications. However, Huawei has denied all accusations leveled against it.
“We’ve been clear: Our ask is that our allies and our partners and our friends don’t do anything that would endanger our shared security interests or restrict our ability to share sensitive information,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.