Jane Onyanga-Omara

USA TODAY

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.

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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed Trump's remarks.

"It's very good news that the United States of America wants to do a good free trade deal with us and wants to do it very fast and it's great to hear that from President-elect Donald Trump," Johnson told reporters in Brussels, where he is attending an EU foreign ministers' meeting.

He added: "Clearly it'll have to be a deal that's very much in the interests of both sides but I've no doubt that it will be."

Trump said 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.

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Trump also told the Times of London that NATO is "obsolete."

"I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete," he said. "It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right."

“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," he added. "With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much."

He added that next Monday, orders will be signed to fortify U.S. borders, potentially including travel restrictions on Europeans and “extreme vetting” for people coming from places known for Islamic extremism.

The British pound fell to a three-month low on Sunday amid reports that May will signal her willingness to leave the EU’s single market — which allows countries to trade with each other without restrictions — in order to gain control of immigration. May’s office said the reports were "speculation."

The pound fell below $1.20 before recovering slightly Monday. It has fallen about 20% against the dollar since the vote for Brexit in June.

May is due to deliver a speech on Brexit on Tuesday.