Donald Trump: I'll offer deals to Britain, Russia

LONDON — President-elect Donald Trump said he will do a trade deal with Britain, to help make the country’s pending departure from the European Union “a great thing.” Trump told the Times of London that he will meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May soon after his inauguration. The article, Trump’s first U.K. interview since being elected, was published online on Monday.

Britons voted to leave the EU at a referendum in June over issues including high levels of immigration. May has said she will trigger the process of leaving the bloc by March. “I love the U.K.,” Trump told the Times of London in an interview at Trump Tower in New York.

“We’re gonna work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly. Good for both sides. “I will be meeting with (May). She’s requesting a meeting and we’ll have a meeting right after I get into the White House and . . . we’re gonna get something done very quickly.”

Trump told the newspaper that he believed that other nations would also leave the EU amid Europe’s migration crisis. More than a million migrants entered the continent in 2015, while smaller numbers entered last year.

“I think it’s very tough. People, countries want their own identity and the U.K. wanted its own identity,” he said. Trump added that German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a “catastrophic mistake” by allowing nearly a million migrants to enter Germany in 2015.

Trump also told the Times of London that he would try and agree deals with Russia including limiting nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions. “They have sanctions on Russia — let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it,” he said. He added that Russia’s involvement with Syria was “a very bad thing” that led to a “terrible humanitarian situation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in Moscow on Monday that Russia does not raise the issue of sanctions in talks with other nations because it is not up to the country to scrap them.

“Let’s wait until he assumes office before we give assessment to any initiatives,” Peskov said.