DHAKA: UK Prime Minister Theresa May is to hold face-to-face talks with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office later.

The pair will spend about an hour together in the first visit by a foreign leader to the White House since Trump became president.

Earlier, May told US Republicans the UK and US could not return to ‘failed’ military interventions “to remake the world in our own image”.

But she said they should not “stand idly by when the threat is real”.

The visit comes amid controversy over comments by President Trump about waterboarding, reports the BBC.

Post-Brexit trade opportunities, security and intelligence co-operation and the future of Nato are likely to feature prominently in May’s talks with Trump.

Although the UK cannot begin to negotiate trade deals with the US or other countries until it leaves the EU, Trump has said he wants a ‘quick’ deal after that, and the two leaders are expected to discuss future co-operation.

A former US ambassador to the EU, Anthony Gardner, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program there was nothing to stop the UK entering discussions, but they would be “purely speculative” as “there is not much to discuss until you know what the contours of a UK deal with the EU will be”.

He said that it took on average about 49 months to complete a trade agreement with the US.

In her speech to US Republicans on Thursday, May said she wanted to “renew the special relationship” between the UK and America.

She said the two countries “must always stand up for our friends and allies in democratic countries that find themselves in tough neighborhoods too”, to applause from her audience.

But Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell said May “seemed to contradict herself” by warning against foreign intervention, but then saying the US and UK must uphold their values around the world.

He said “it would be a mistake to encourage Donald Trump to be isolationist” when he was already talking about “America first”.

BDST: 1636 HRS, JAN 27, 2017
LM/BD