LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday Britain must underline the importance of free trade and the NATO military alliance to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as the government looks to build a relationship with his administration.

"It is of course vital that we get over the message that NATO and Article 5 of NATO has been the guarantor of peace and stability in our continent for the last 70 years," Johnson said. "That is a point, I think, that is well understood in Washington, but which we will repeat."

He also said it was vital to get over the importance of trade, free enterprise and of "sticking up for the values that I believe unite our two countries."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; writing by William James)