After Biden talks in New York, UK and US both voice need to defend progress over 25 years of peace accord
Liz Truss, the UK prime minister, wants to settle the post-Brexit row over Northern Ireland before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace deal next Easter, as she seeks to calm tensions with US president Joe Biden on the issue.
Truss and Biden held talks lasting 75 minutes in New York on Wednesday, with both agreeing on the need to defend the gains made in Northern Ireland since the 1998 deal and to restore the power-sharing executive at Stormont.
The dispute over the so-called Northern Ireland protocol has left the region without a government, and has strained relations between London and Washington as well as between Britain and the EU.
British diplomats hope that if the dispute with the EU over the protocol is settled amicably and the NI executive is restored before next Easter, it could pave the way for a state visit by Biden to London in 2023.
Truss, who met Biden on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York, insisted this week that time was of the essence. “I will not let this drift,” she told reporters.
British officials said that both sides saw the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended years of conflict, as a pivotal moment.
Pro-UK unionist politicians are boycotting the Stormont power-sharing executive in Belfast in protest at the protocol, part of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, which imposes border checks on trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Truss wants to end checks on goods moving from Britain that stay in Northern Ireland; the EU insists on some checks because the region remains part of the single market for goods. The deal removes the need for border checks on the Irish land border...
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