Trump-May talks to focus on trade, climate change and Huawei, say officials

Donald Trump’s historic state visit to the United Kingdom comes at a time when the two partners in a supposed “special relationship” have a wide range of important issues to go through including a post-Brexit trade deal; fundamental differences over the Iran nuclear agreement and keeping the Chinese multinational, Huawei, out of this country’s telecommunications system.

The focus on the Middle East will include attempts to get Britain to join the US in pulling out of what Mr Trump calls “the worst deal ever” on Iran to one he proclaims is the “deal of the century”, and the peace plan which his son-in-law Jared Kushner was due to unveil later this year.

But, in reality, expectations on anything being agreed are extremely limited with governance and politics in Britain in a state of limbo and President Trump meeting a prime minister whose resignation comes into effect just a few days after he leaves.

Mr Trump and Theresa May are not even going to have formal one-to-one talks, Downing Street has confirmed. There will be a meeting with senior officials and ministers also present, but the prime minister, both sides acknowledge, cannot make any agreements in the name of her successor, and many of the UK ministers are unlikely to be in their current positions for long with the leadership election coming.

The talks, according to officials, will cover a range of issues from foreign relations, to trade and climate change, with the president due to make his views clear on Brexit and Huawei, where the Chinese technology multinational is accused of being an arm of the Beijing government.

Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to Britain, has said that American companies will want business access to the NHS in any post-Brexit trade deals. But officials were unsure whether specific sectors of the economy would feature in the meeting.

Ms May will, however, apparently challenge Mr Trump on climate change. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister has raised climate change with the president before and will do so again during his visit. Tackling climate change is a priority for the UK.

“We are driving forward international action through our work at the UN and with our Commonwealth partners, and we’re proud to have offered to host COP26 (the UN climate summit in 2020).

“As the prime minister has said previously, we were disappointed by the US decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017 and continue to hope they will return.”

There is a feeling, among both American and British officials, that a future Tory prime minister will bar Huwaei from the UK telecommunications network. The decision to allow the company in was leaked from a National Security Council meeting during which Mrs May, it was revealed, overrode the objections of five cabinet ministers to drive it through.

Three of those ministers are now Tory leadership contenders. No official announcement has been made yet and it would be relatively easy follow the example of the US and other allies and put restrictions on the firm, diplomats said.

The president, according to multiple reports, intends to warn that there could be problems with intelligence sharing with Britain if Huawei is allowed into the UK telecoms infrastructure. His national security advisor, John Bolton, said a few days ago: “Everybody is catching up to the dangers posed, especially in fifth-generation telecommunications systems, by equipment from Huawei that can allow foreign governments a back door into systems.”

The UK is not the only Western ally under pressure from the US on Huawei. Mike Pompeo has been visiting European allies to warn them about collaborating with the Chinese company. In the Netherlands, after meeting with Foreign Minister Stef Block on Monday, the secretary of state said: “We’ve been clear – our ask is that our allies and our partners and our friends don’t do anything that will endanger our shared security interests or restrict our ability to share sensitive information.”

Mr Pompeo had also raised security concern about Huawei in Germany on a previous stop on his tour. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had stressed that his country has “high security standards” which all companies hoping to bid to build the new, high-speed internet network would have to fulfil.

Robert Emerson, a British security analyst, said: “The UK will have to choose between China and the US on this and I can’t see the UK taking on the US. It just isn’t worth it on so many grounds, especially on that of a future trade agreement when UK is on its own after leaving the EU.”

The position of a future Labour government on Huawei remains unclear. The party’s digital minister ,Liam Byrne, said recently: “Our digital networks already lag well behind the world’s best, yet the government continues to dither over Huawei. We need clarity on the risks and costs of a decision either way and we need it now. If the government thinks Huawei threatens our security, it needs to explain why and the costs of a decision either way.”

Mr Trump had warned that he would reconsider sharing intelligence with Britain if Mr Corbyn was in charge. He told the Sunday Times in an interview: “We are very, very good for the UK if you look at what we do for the UK in terms of many things, including – obviously – the military, intelligence as well ... I would think that somebody in that position would want to and have to get along with the United States.”

Other senior members of the administration, including Mr Bolton, have refused to comment publicly on a future Corbyn led Labour government. An American official said: “Frankly, we don’t know much about them. The UK is a very confusing political landscape for us at the moment.”