LONDON — (CNN) British Prime Minister Theresa May will tell Republican lawmakers that the US and UK can lead the world, as her country readies to pull out of the European Union and seek closer ties with the world’s top economy.
May will travel to Philadelphia Thursday to become the first serving head of state from outside the US to speak at the annual congressional Republican retreat. On Friday, she will become the first foreign leader to meet the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump face to face.
May’s aim will be to leave a lasting impression on lawmakers who have gathered to map out the party’s vision for the year, but her task will not be an easy one.
President Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders to cement his “America first” platform.
May will say that as Britain exits the EU — after the British people voted to do so in a referendum last year — the country will have “the opportunity to reassert our belief in a confident, sovereign and global Britain, ready to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike.”
“So as we rediscover our confidence together — as you renew your nation just as we renew ours — we have the opportunity — indeed the responsibility — to renew the special relationship for this new age. We have the opportunity to lead, together, again,” May will say, according to a government statement sent to CNN.
She is expected to tell lawmakers that the US and UK together “made the modern world.”
“The institutions upon which that world relies were so often conceived or inspired by our two nations working together,” she is due to say.
“It is through our actions over many years, working together to defeat evil or to open up the world, that we have been able to fulfill the promise of those who first spoke of the special nature of the relationship between us. The promise of freedom, liberty and the rights of man.”
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May urged to press Trump
May was reminded by members of parliament Wednesday of an array of concerns over some of Trump’s policies, including his stance on climate change, torture and his attitude towards women.
May said that Britain would not be drawn into the use of torture as a US ally, after Trump said he would consider reintroducing waterboarding as a technique to extract information.
She was urged by British lawmakers to press the President to keep his country in the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which binds countries to lower their greenhouse gas emissions — a landmark deal that Trump has vowed to pull out of in the name of creating more jobs and boosting manufacturing.
And she was also asked to convey the concerns of 100,000 people who took part in a women’s rights march in London over the weekend, to which May responded she wasn’t afraid to “speak frankly” with Trump.
MP Ed Miliband told May she had a responsibility to the entire international community to set the tone right with Trump.
But May’s main aim will be to have the President’s ear on a future free-trade deal between the countries after she confirmed last week that Britain will not remain in the EU’s single market — essentially a free-trade zone that also allows the free movement of labor.
Because Britain is still officially an EU member, it cannot legally strike new trade deals until it withdraws from the union.
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