JOE BIDEN is set to issue a stark warning to Boris Johnson over the UK’s Brexit plans and the threat they could pose to maintaining peace in Northern Ireland.
The US President is due to meet his UK counterpart at the G7 summit in Cornwall for the first time face-to-face since he defeated Donald Trump in the US elections.
However, reports suggest Biden, who is of Irish heritage, will make no bones about his desire to protect the Good Friday Agreement from the potential fallout from Brexit.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on board Air Force One: “President Biden has been crystal clear about his rock-solid belief in the Good Friday Agreement as the foundation for peaceful co-existence in Northern Ireland
“Any steps that imperil it or undermine it would not be welcomed by the United States.”
The warning comes after Yael Lempert, a top US diplomat in the UK, reportedly issued London with a demarche – a formal diplomatic reprimand – for “inflaming” tensions, according to The Times.
Joe BidenBiden has been a staunch critic of Brexit and has previously appeared at odds with Johnson, who he once described as the “physical and emotional clone” of his predecessor, Trump.
While the meeting at the G7 Summit will see the two leaders discuss plans for the reopening of US/UK air travel, Biden fully intends to express concern over any breach of the Northern Ireland protocol put in place by Johnson’s government in 2019.
But while many are predicting Biden will seek to align himself with the EU rather than the UK, Sullivan was keen to stress there is plenty the pair agree on.
“They’ve been very much down to business,” he told reporters at the White House this week.
“And I expect that their meeting together will just cover the waterfront. I mean, really, a wide range of issues where the two of them and the US and United Kingdom do see eye to eye.”
See More: Boris Johnson, Brexit, Joe Biden, Northern Ireland
