Theresa May heads to Malta EU summit to talk Nato, Trump

Prime Minister Theresa May is heading to Malta on Friday for the latest EU summit, where she is expected to stress the importance of Nato and call for member countries to meet their defence spending limit.

May is also expected to discuss her recent meeting with US President Donald Trump, when she also brought up the importance of the defence treaty after he previously dismissed Nato as obsolete. Trump has since reaffirmed America’s commitment to it.

It is expected that May will urge other European countries to increase defence spending as Britain currently meets the minimum of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) for defence.

Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets, said that if EU leaders are smart they should try to use the UK as a bridge to the new US administration, which has a fairly ambivalent view of the EU as an organisation.

Trump has previously said that other countries could follow Britain and leave the EU.

The prime minister's visit to the Maltese capital of Valletta is also supposed to be an opportunity for Britain to build a “new positive and constructive” relationship with the EU after Britain extricates itself from bloc.

May will only attend the early meeting with EU leaders to talk about Nato and the refugee and migration crisis and will then will leave later, when the remaining 27 member states discuss the future of the bloc and Brexit.