美国有线新闻 CNN 英国首相访美会晤特朗普 邀请特朗普对英国进行国事访问（在线收听）

The first foreign leader to meet with newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump was British Prime Minister Theresa May. She visited Washington, D.C. last week. And she carried with her an invitation for President Trump to attend an official state visit with Queen Elizabeth II.

A state visit is a very formal event. A foreign leader gets a grand welcome from Britain's royal family. There's a banquet at Buckingham Palace, a horse drawn carriage procession plank by soldiers.

President Trump's invitation is unusual in that visit would happen later this year. No U.S. president has ever made a state visit to the U.K. in his first year in office.

Former President Barack Obama had been in office for more than two years. Former President George W. Bush, more than two and a half years.

There are a more than a million signatures on a British petition calling for President Trump's state visit to be cancelled. Many Britons are protesting President Trump's executive order concerning immigration and refugees. There's also a counter-petition in support of Trump's visit that got more than 100,000 signatures. The invitation will now be debated in Britain's parliament.

Prime Minister May says President Trump's invitation stands. It's one many examples of the exceptionally close ties that Britain and America have shared for decades.