- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
US president Joe Biden and British prime minister Liz Truss have agreed in their first talks on the “priority” of preserving peace in Northern Ireland. The two leaders reached consensus while discussing post-Brexit trade during their first one-on-one meeting at the United Nations summit in New York on Wednesday (21).
There have been tensions over the UK’s plans to override the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the post-Brexit deal.
“it means lorries don’t face checkpoints when they go from Northern Ireland (in the UK) to the Irish Republic (in the EU). Instead, when goods arrive in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK (England, Scotland and Wales), they are checked against EU rules,” a BBC report said.
Prior to their meeting, Biden and Truss said they were “committed” to preserving an agreement that led to peace in Northern Ireland, the report added.
Truss’s spokesperson said she had a “short discussion” with the US president about Northern Ireland in a wide-ranging conversation which was dominated by the Ukraine war, BBC added.
According to a read-out from Downing Street, the duo spoke over supporting Ukraine, energy security and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
The spokesperson also said that the tone of the meeting was “warm” and Truss and Biden did not discuss a trade deal between the two countries.
Truss also discussed the protocol with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen but refused to do the same with French president Emmanuel Macron.
