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Joe Biden will meet Boris Johnson in person for the first time on Thursday, with hopes for a new US-UK deal ‘Letter from the Atlantic’ undermined by “deep” concerns in Washington about the post-Brexit situation in Northern Ireland.
Biden’s anxiety was transmitted directly to London earlier this month by the top US diplomat in Britain, who warned the UK to stop igniting tensions in Northern Ireland. new Brexit trade rules.
Yael Lempert reportedly issued a decision, a formal diplomatic reprimand, urging Britain to make “unpopular commitments” if necessary to ease tensions over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.
Downing Street made no comment, but the incident confirms that NI’s line is worsening preparations for the G7 summit, which begins Friday in Cornwall, and is hurting relations with Britain’s top economic partners and allies.
The EU threatens trade sanctions if Johnson unilaterally breaks promises he made related to Northern Ireland and hosts the G7 summit will face uncomfortable meetings in the coming days with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the EU itself.
According to a note from the UK government seen by the Times, Lempert told Lord David Frost, Brexit minister, on 3 June that the UK was “igniting” tensions in Ireland and Europe with its rhetoric about certain controls in NI ports.
The note said the US “strongly urged” Britain to reach a “negotiated agreement”, even if that meant “unpopular commitments”. The British note from the meeting said Lempert urged Britain to keep things “cool”, suggesting Britain had “inflamed the rhetoric”.
He added: “Lempert said the United States was increasingly concerned about the stalemate in implementing the protocol. This was undermining the confidence of our two main allies.”
The revelation of the meeting confirmed Biden’s anxiety over the UK / EU stalemate over the border issue in Northern Ireland. Jake Sullivan, a national security adviser, said the president had “deep” concerns about the future of the peace process in the region.
A senior administration official told the Financial Times that the United States had raised its concerns about Northern Ireland with the United Kingdom in a private message ahead of its summit. But the official said the discussion was not led by the president and “did not intensify.”
Frost and Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission, failed Wednesday to resolve the line on the operation of the protocol, which effectively introduces a trade border into the Irish Sea. “There were no breakthroughs, there were no breakdowns either,” Frost said.
Johnson claims that EU demands for controls on goods circulating between Britain and Northern Ireland are too heavy and disrupt trade, causing tensions in the pro-UK unionist community.
The issue is a major distraction for Johnson ahead of talks with Biden, in which the two leaders will sign a new “Atlantic Charter”: an attempt to evoke cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom during the war. and the 1941 letter signed by Churchill and Roosevelt that outlined a new world order.
The new document, to be signed in Cornwall with British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in the background, will commit both sides to defending democracy and free trade, with the subtext of a common front against the authoritarian regimes in Beijing and Moscow.
After arriving in Britain on Wednesday evening, Biden told U.S. military personnel he saw next week’s G7 summit and NATO summit as critical moments for America to reaffirm its global leadership afterward. of the Trump years.
Biden, who will also meet with Vladimir Putin next week, said after arriving at RAF Mildenhall Air Base: “At every point along the way, we will make it clear that the United States has returned and that the world’s democracies they are “standing together” to face the most difficult challenges and problems that matter most to our future. ”
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