Trump state visit plan offered by the PM Theresa May is not the perfect option for the Queen Elizabeth, said ex-head of the Foreign Office. Mrs May’s decision to invite American president to the UK coincided with the massive protests against his travel ban. Thus, Trump’s visit has put the Queen in a ‘very difficult position’.
The decision of Theresa May to invite the President of the US to the Great Britain was a ‘premature,’ believes Lord Ricketts whose letter was published in The Times. The offer to visit the UK coincided with the global wave of the protests against Trump’s executive order on the travellers from Muslim countries.
The online petition calling for the visit of Donald Trump to the UK is gaining more supporters. The people urge in the petition text to cancel the state visit, and the former head of the Foreign office called this decision of the prime minister ‘premature’.
Monday in the UK started with the massive protests, thousands Britons across the UK joined protests against travel ban on several countries, mainly Muslim ones. The executive order was signed by Donald Trump on Friday, and immediately caused protests across the globe, especially at the main international airports.
Such controversial immigration measure prompted an emergency debate in the UK parliament on Monday as well. The world is changing extremely fast, and in the light of the weekend events, the Parliament doubted in the correctness of Mrs May’s invitation.
Foreign office’s ex-secretary Lord Ricketts about Trump’s visit to the UK
Lord Ricketts hold the position of the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office from 2006 to 2010, this politician stresses in his letter to The Times that Donald Trump and his visit to the UK right now is just improper. In diplomatic terms, it is unprecedented for a US leader to be invited for a state visit in the very first year in the White House, moreover, in the very first month!
According to the diplomatic code, Mr Trump is not specially deserving of this exceptional honour. Thus, such hastiness from the side of the British prime minister is just inappropriate.
Lord Ricketts as the ex-permanent secretary at the Foreign Office advises to Mrs May to be
wiser and to wait to see — what sort of president he would turn out to be before advising the Queen to invite him.
“Now the Queen is put in a very difficult position,”
the diplomat said.
At the same time, there’s another opinion about the situation of Trump visit to the UK. William Hague (former foreign secretary) believes that Elizabeth II is able to cope with ay visitor. She can take such a visit “in her stride” because of her unbeaten diplomatic skills. If the Queen welcomed the tyrant from Romania Nicolae Ceausescu, she will cope effortlessly with a “brash billionaire from New York”.
Despite all these protocol controversies, no date has yet been announced, and the PM office informed that Mrs May was ‘very happy’ to extend the invitation to Mr Trump on behalf of the Queen.
