{"id":47842,"date":"2018-08-28T12:29:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T11:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=47842"},"modified":"2018-08-28T12:29:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T11:29:37","slug":"may-kicks-off-first-africa-tour-as-british-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/may-kicks-off-first-africa-tour-as-british-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"May kicks off first Africa tour as British PM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7563\" src=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Teresa-May.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"168\" \/>British Prime Minister Theresa May touched down in Cape Town Tuesday as she kicked off a tour of the African continent where she hopes to lay the foundations for post-Brexit trade deals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nMay is facing pressure at home from so-called Remainers skeptical of her ability to forge trade deals once Britain severs ties with Brussels, as well as from Brexiteers fearful she will not deliver a clean break.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nHer tour of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya \u2014 May\u2019s first to the continent since becoming premier in 2016 \u2014 will be seen as an effort to stamp her authority on her embattled premiership.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cAs we prepare to leave the European Union, now is the time for the UK to deepen and strengthen its global partnerships,\u201d May said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cAfrica stands right on the cusp of playing a transformative role in the global economy,\u201d she added.<br \/>\nMay will use a speech in Cape Town to set out how Britain can bolster its partnership with Africa, \u201cparticularly by bringing the transformative power of private sector trade and investment from the UK,\u201d her office said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nFormer foreign minister Boris Johnson, whose July departure from the cabinet brought May\u2019s government to the brink, said in his resignation speech that May\u2019s current Brexit policy would hamper London\u2019s ability to strike independent trade deals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nMay will then present President Cyril Ramaphosa with the bell from the troopship Mendi, which sank in the English Channel in 1917 drowning more than 600 mainly South African troops who were preparing to join the Allied forces fighting in World War I.<br \/>\nIt was the worst maritime disaster in the African country\u2019s history, and has become a symbol of its Great War sacrifice.<br \/>\nThe bell was given to a BBC reporter at a British seaside resort in 2017 following an anonymous tip, according to the broadcaster.<br \/>\nThe prime minister is also expected to visit Robben Island where former president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.<br \/>\nMay will head to Nigeria on Wednesday for meetings with President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital Abuja and with victims of modern slavery in Lagos.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nOn Thursday she will meet Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, shortly after his return from seeing US President Donald Trump in Washington and before he travels to China to meet President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nThe prime minister will then see British troops in training action and tour a business school, before concluding the trip at a state dinner hosted by Kenyatta.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\r\n<script>(function(d, s, id) {\r\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\r\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\r\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\r\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\r\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\r\n}(document, \"script\", \"facebook-jssdk\"));<\/script>\r\n <fb:comments href=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/may-kicks-off-first-africa-tour-as-british-pm\/\" font=\"arial\" num_posts=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" colorscheme=\"light\"  style=\"background:#FFFFFF;padding-top:0px;\r\npadding-right:0px;\r\npadding-bottom:0px;\r\npadding-left:0px;\r\nmargin-top:0px;\r\nmargin-right:0px;\r\nmargin-bottom:0px;\r\nmargin-left:0px;\r\n\"><\/fb:comments>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British Prime Minister Theresa May touched down in Cape Town Tuesday as she kicked off a tour of the African continent where she hopes to lay the foundations for post-Brexit trade deals. May is facing pressure at home from so-called Remainers skeptical of her ability to forge trade deals once Britain severs ties with Brussels, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47843,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842\/revisions\/47843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}