Joe Biden will warn Boris Johnson and the European Union not to “imperil” the Northern Ireland peace process when he meets with leaders at the G7 summit in Cornwall.
As the US President flew into the UK on Wednesday night for his first overseas visit since entering the White House, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned that the president harbours “very deep” concerns over the Brexit border dispute in Northern Ireland.
The so-called “sausage wars” dispute escalated on Wednesday with talks between the UK government and the EU ending without agreement on the UK delaying protocols that would involve customs inspections of chilled meats moving from mainland UK to Northern Ireland.
As the EU warned its patience was “wearing very thin”, aboard Air Force One Donald Trump’s successor headed for RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, ahead of a meeting with the Prime Minister on Thursday.
Sullivan said the US president believes the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol is “critical” to ensuring that the Good Friday Agreement is protected, as Britain and the EU try to resolve the issue of checks in the Irish Sea.
The adviser said both sides must continue with negotiations, adding: “But whatever way they find to proceed must, at its core, fundamentally protect the gains of the Good Friday Agreement and not imperil that.
“And that is the message that President Biden will send when he is in Cornwall.”
Boris Johnson and Joe Biden will work on efforts to resume transatlantic travel and agree a new commitment for the UK and US to co-operate on challenges including climate change and security when they meet on Thursday.
The US President will meet the Prime Minister in Cornwall with the two leaders set to agree a new Atlantic Charter to underpin shared commitments on pressing international issues.
Downing Street said the two leaders would reinforce their shared commitment to preserve the gains made by the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland.
The meeting of the two leaders comes on the eve of the G7 summit which will bring together the world’s wealthiest democracies at a time when the West faces difficult judgments in responding to the rise of China as an economic and political force and the destabilising actions of Russia.
As part of that process, the new Atlantic Charter will commit the UK and US to apply their combined strength to the enormous challenges facing the planet today, including global defence and security, “building back better” from coronavirus, and stopping climate change.
The original Atlantic Charter was a joint statement made by Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt in 1941, setting out the UK and US goals for the post-Second World War world.
Eighty years on, Johnson – who dislikes the term “special relationship” to describe the transatlantic partnership – said the new agreement would underline that the UK and US remain “the closest of partners and the greatest of allies”.
