Emma Little Pengelly was speaking to the News Letter as she prepared to return to the UK after a number of days of engagements with senior figures in the Trump administration – including the President himself. She said Donald Trump had seemed “genuinely interested” in Northern Ireland during her meeting with him earlier this week. The joint head of government at Stormont also met with a number of senior figures in his administration, and used the meetings to urge “collaboration” between this part of the UK and the United States. The DUP politician said it was important to focus on Northern Ireland’s strengths – and singled out its “stance on aerospace and defence, our strengths on cyber, on health and life sciences and creative industries”. “Northern Ireland is a NATO ally as part of the UK”, she said – and also pointed out that “the trade deficit is not as anywhere near as significant as that in the Republic of Ireland”. The deputy First Minister said: “My strong my pitch is, first of all, we're open for business, so please come talk to us. We want to do business with you. “We can help and support businesses that want to come to Northern Ireland. Secondly, we've got a really strong basis for collaboration. This isn't just one way. “It's not about the US investing in Northern Ireland, and that's it. It's about our collaboration. We've got a really good cyber security hub now in Northern Ireland, and those companies are working with big US companies, for example, Bloomberg, United Airlines and others, and the potential to do more in terms of defence as well”. She said the province’s strong aerospace and defence industry was a focus of her pitch to senior figures in Washington, including the State Department. Mrs Little Pengelly said that Northern Ireland can support the US as a NATO ally on issues such as under sea cables and cyber security. “We are very trusted, we have good regulation, it's high quality. It is trusted, and that's been demonstrated in terms of that international reach that we have, and that's something we're giving back as well to the US. That's a genuine collaboration”, she said. Asked about health minister Mike Nesbitt’s comments that the US shouldn’t give the UK a more favourable deal than the EU, because of the potential impact on Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework, the deputy First Minister said she was interested in standing up for Northern Ireland. “I want the best deal for Northern Ireland. That's the only metric that I'm using. So I would like to see a good UK trade deal, and Northern Ireland must be fully included in that trade deal, of course”, she said. On her meeting with President Trump, she said he seemed “genuinely interested”. “I got a good bit of time with him to talk through a number of things. He seemed absolutely, genuinely interested. He referred to the fact that the Open [golf tournament] was coming to Northern Ireland”, she said. After presenting the President with a bespoke flag from Royal Portrush Golf Club, the Lagan Valley MLA said he offered him the opportunity to come and play the famous North Coast course. “I'd asked him had he played Royal Portrush before, and he said he hadn't. So I said, it'd be fantastic to get him over to play the course”, she said. The deputy First Minister also said that with new administrations in Washington and London, it was an important opportunity to raise issues such as the specific impact tariffs could have on Northern Ireland. Speaking on Friday afternoon, she said: “At the gala dinner last night, I had a good conversation with the deputy chief of staff in the White House. I was able to raise Northern Ireland with him, speak to him about the special envoy issue”, she said. “Quite frankly, many, many other places in the world would look on enviously at that level of unparalleled access. But in addition to that, you are talking to those key people, the people who write the speeches, the people who are going to be in the room when big decisions are made, and when you look at this tariff issue, for example, it's very clear that the decisions that are made here in DC have the potential to have that significant impact in Northern Ireland”, Ms Little Pengelly said. Ben Lowry writes about a minor triumph for unionists in his column on Page 11