Alan Gomez

USA TODAY

World leaders from Mexico, Canada and Israel had their first conversations with President Trump over the weekend, ahead of his first face-to-face visit with British Prime Minister Theresa May later this week.

While foreign policy analysts are unsure whether the new president will charge ahead with promises he made during the campaign, they expect Trump to transfer his business tactics to the diplomatic negotiating table.

"This is the week where everyone puts their cards on the table," said Brian Winter, vice president for policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas. "He's a deal maker, and he will take a very tough position at the beginning and then negotiate over time, because that's the way he does business."

His first weekend in the White House included phone calls with the leaders of America's neighbors: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. On Sunday, Trump talked with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and described the call as “very nice.”

Afterward, Netanyahu's office said he had a “very warm conversation” with Trump and accepted an invitation to visit the White House next month. No date was set yet. They discussed the international nuclear deal with Iran, which both men have harshly criticized, and the Palestinian issue, Netanyahu's office said in a statement

Netanyahu and right-wing Israeli politicians have viewed Trump as being more loyal to their causes than President Obama, especially when it comes to Israel's expansion of settlements. Israel tested that theory Sunday when Jerusalem city officials approved building permits for 566 new homes in east Jerusalem. But Netanyahu — ahead of talking with Trump — delayed a Cabinet vote Sunday on a contentious proposal to annex a large settlement in the West Bank.

"We've been through eight tough years with Obama pressuring to freeze construction," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told the Associated Press. "I hope that era is over and we now can build and develop Jerusalem for the welfare of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike."

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Britian's May, who will likely be the first foreign leader to visit in person with the new president on Friday, will also meet with congressional Republicans Thursday at their strategy conference in Philadelphia.

Her meeting with Trump comes at a tricky time for both countries. May wants to shore up a new trade deal through the "special relationship" with the U.S. as the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union. She'll be facing a Trump administration that vowed to adopt protectionist, "America first" stances that could limit such deals.

May is also expected to defend the value of belonging to NATO, after Trump has publicly questioned the usefulness of the military alliance. May said she is prepared to stand up against any "unacceptable" comments that Trump might make about women.

“When I sit down, I think the biggest statement that will be made about the role of women is the fact that I will be there as a female prime minister — prime minister of the United Kingdom -— directly taking to him about the interests that we share,” she told BBC One on Sunday.

Trump is scheduled to meet in person with Mexico's Peña Nieto on Jan. 31, when the two leaders will have a long list of issues to discuss. Chief among them will be Trump's vow to make Mexico pay for a wall along the southwest border and to dismantle, or seriously alter, the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

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Winter said Mexico will continue opposing any suggestion that it will help pay for Trump's "Great Wall." But he said Mexicans are already being helpful on security, beefing up patrols along its southern border and extraditing drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States on the night before Trump's inauguration.

"That was essentially the Mexican government saying, 'Look how useful we can be if we cooperate,'" Winter said. "Things will change, so the question becomes, 'How do you manage this change?'"