Biden stresses importance of Northern Irish peace deal in first call to PM Johnson

By Alistair Smout and Elizabeth Piper

 

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street to attend a cabinet meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, Britain November 10, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

 

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden stressed the importance of protecting Northern Ireland's peace deal in the Brexit process when he called UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday, hinting at potential tensions over Britain's EU exit even as the pair emphasised common ground in other areas.

 

Johnson's government is seeking a trade deal with the EU but says it is willing to leave without one, which could complicate the situation at the sensitive Northern Irish border with Ireland - the UK's only land border with the EU.

 

The 1998 Good Friday peace deal that effectively ended Northern Ireland's 30 years of sectarian violence created new institutions for cross-border cooperation on the island of Ireland.

 

But Johnson has put forward legislation that would break the Northern Ireland protocol of the Brexit divorce treaty that seeks to avoid a physical customs border between the British province and EU-member Ireland.

 

That prompted a warning two months ago from Biden, who has talked about the importance of his Irish heritage, that the UK must honour the 1998 agreement as it withdraws from the bloc or there can be no separate U.S. trade deal.

 

"They talked about the importance of implementing Brexit in such a way that upholds the Good Friday Agreement," a British official said after Tuesday's Biden-Johnson call.

 

"The PM assured the president-elect that would be the case."

 

Johnson has predicted close ties with the United States under Biden, seeing common ground on issues like climate change.

 

"Among the shared priorities they discussed were containing COVID-19 and ... combating climate change," Biden's transition team said in a statement after the call.

 

"The President-elect expressed his interest in cooperating with the UK, NATO, and the EU on shared transAtlantic priorities, and reaffirmed his support for the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland," they added.

 

Johnson has never met Biden and commentators have suggested he will have to work hard to foster the so-called "special relationship" between the historical allies.

 

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, William James and by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; editing by Stephen Addison)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-11

 

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Biden just read Johnson the riot act.

Do as you are told Johnson, and get used to doing as you are told.

Who cares? George Eustace said the deal with the US is no longer critical. 

UK government on a suicide mission 

Surely Johnson cannot pull his own "internal market bill"?

Much more of this backsliding and we are going to end up back with Mays deal.

Which of course the Brexiteers will then claim was what they wanted all along. ????

I can see some of you UK people have your panties all in a twist about this but looking at this objectively not having Irish descent the demands of President Elect Biden sound entirely reasonable. 

Is there any American politicians that don't cling to some sort of British/Irish ancestry?

 

Just be American.

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I can see some of you UK people have your panties all in a twist about this but looking at this objectively not having Irish descent the demands of President Elect Biden sound entirely reasonable. 

Demands? ????

 

Biden doesn't get to demand anything outside the borders of the US. I suggest he puts his own house in order before he starts looking over his neighbours fence. He can start with the BLM riots, unemployment, C19, national debt, the US economy and the trade war with China.

 

Once he's sorted that out inside US borders, he can politely make his opinion known elsewhere (and the world will on the whole, politely ignore him). Forget about 'demands'. 

2 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Demands? ????

 

Biden doesn't get to demand anything outside the borders of the US. I suggest he puts his own house in order before he starts looking over his neighbours fence. He can start with the BLM riots, unemployment, C19, national debt, the US economy and the trade war with China.

 

Once he's sorted that out inside US borders, he can politely make his opinion known elsewhere (and the world will on the whole, politely ignore him). Forget about 'demands'. 

You’ll not want a trade deal with the US then.

3 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

You’ll not want a trade deal with the US then.

That depends on the terms, doesn't it. We certainly won't be begging for one, or selling our NHS for one (or handing over sovereignty for one like the deluded EU chancers are still hoping for).

 

If the terms are good for both sides, an FTA is fine. If the terms are not good, WTO is fine. I won't be losing any sleep over it that's for sure ????.

1 minute ago, JonnyF said:

That depends on the terms, doesn't it. We certainly won't be begging for one, or selling our NHS for one (or handing over sovereignty for one like the deluded EU chancers are still hoping for).

 

If the terms are good for both sides, an FTA is fine. If the terms are not good, WTO is fine. I won't be losing any sleep over it that's for sure ????.

You’ll take what you are given, and like it.

 

The terms will be good for the dominant party in the ‘negotiations’.

The thing is that the hope expressed by Brexiters that a free trade deal with the USA would significantly make up for the loss of such with the EU was slways a forlorn one. Trade with the USA is already very free. Tariffs are mostly very low or non-existent.

 The UK govt reckoned that such a deal would increase GDP by 0.2%. 

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

You’ll take what you are given, and like it.

 

The terms will be good for the dominant party in the ‘negotiations’.

 

Like we accepted the EU's level playing field and ECJ jurisdiction?

 

You can ask Barnier how easy it is to get UK negotiators to 'take what they are given'. If Johnson wants No Deal, No Deal is what he will get and you Remainers can whinge and moan about it as much as you like ????.

 

 

1 minute ago, JonnyF said:

 

Like we accepted the EU's level playing field and ECJ jurisdiction?

 

You can ask Barnier how easy it is to get UK negotiators to 'take what they are given'. If Johnson wants No Deal, No Deal is what he will get and you Remainers can whinge and moan about it as much as you like ????.

 

 

Let me know when you’ve got a deal with the EU, we’ll then discuss.

4 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Do as you are told Johnson, and get used to doing as you are told.

Yes and again the Brits are forced to bend. I mentioned it yesterday that they lost an ally in the US and now already it shows it effects. The Brits have even less power now then before in the negotiations.

 

I wonder how the Brexiteers are going to sell this. They kept telling me that the UK was holding the cards and had a strong position.

 

Looks more like quicksand to me.

4 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Like we accepted the EU's level playing field and ECJ jurisdiction?

 

You can ask Barnier how easy it is to get UK negotiators to 'take what they are given'. If Johnson wants No Deal, No Deal is what he will get and you Remainers can whinge and moan about it as much as you like ????.

 

 

It gets harder and harder for you to face reality. I told you this yesterday they lost an ally and now you see the results. The negotiating power of the UK gets slimmer by the day.

 

Its fun to see predictions come true.

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Let me know when you’ve got a deal with the EU, we’ll then discuss.

 

You seem to be contradicting yourself again. I know it's terribly confusing for you so I'll try to explain in simple terms.

 

It's very likely there will be No Deal with the EU. Which goes to prove that your "The UK will take what they are given and like it" theory to be complete and utter nonsense. I repeat, if the terms are good we'll take it, if not we'll walk away. No Deal with the EU would prove that, not disprove it .

2 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

You seem to be contradicting yourself again. I know it's terribly confusing for you so I'll try to explain in simple terms.

 

It's very likely there will be No Deal with the EU. Which goes to prove that your "The UK will take what they are given and like it" theory to be complete and utter nonsense. I repeat, if the terms are good we'll take it, if not we'll walk away. No Deal with the EU would prove that, not disprove it .

I’m not sure where you get this ‘very likely’ from but if you believe the UK having no trade deal with the EU puts the IK in a stronger position when sitting across the table from Biden’s administration, good luck with that.

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I’m not sure where you get this ‘very likely’ from but if you believe the UK having no trade deal with the EU puts the IK in a stronger position when sitting across the table from Biden’s administration, good luck with that.

No deal with the EU, then Biden also makes sure there is no favorable deal and all of a sudden the UK economy takes a big hit. Well done Brexit id say. I doubt BJ is that stupid. Then again he loses face if he makes a deal that is not good enough maybe he will just destroy the UK economy to prevent losing face. 

39 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

That depends on the terms, doesn't it. We certainly won't be begging for one, or selling our NHS for one (or handing over sovereignty for one like the deluded EU chancers are still hoping for).

 

If the terms are good for both sides, an FTA is fine. If the terms are not good, WTO is fine. I won't be losing any sleep over it that's for sure ????.

You must be thinking of the defeated Mr. Trump. President Elect Biden would have zero interest in degrading your enviable national health. 

Downing Street's version:

PM call with President-elect Biden of the United States: 10 November 2020

Quote

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with President-elect Joe Biden of the United States.

(I'm curious as to the use of the phrase 'President Elect' which AFAICT has yet to be confirmed).

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by evadgib

1 minute ago, evadgib said:

Downing Street's version:

PM call with President-elect Biden of the United States: 10 November 2020

(I'm curious as to the use of the phrase 'President Elect' which AFAICT has yet to be confirmed).

Nice to see that BJ learned a lot from Trump. Id trust Reuters over a Gov news site that is controlled by BJ. 

 

Nice try though.

40 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Like we accepted the EU's level playing field and ECJ jurisdiction?

 

You can ask Barnier how easy it is to get UK negotiators to 'take what they are given'. If Johnson wants No Deal, No Deal is what he will get and you Remainers can whinge and moan about it as much as you like ????.

 

 

You claimed you would get a deal. Not only a deal, but one where you would have your cake and eat it. Not only that, it would only take an afternoon tea and be the easiest deal in history. 
 

It’s four years later now. You still don’t have a deal. If you get one, you will end up with the crumbs. 
 

Who are you trying to fool? 

21 minutes ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

You claimed you would get a deal. Not only a deal, but one where you would have your cake and eat it. Not only that, it would only take an afternoon tea and be the easiest deal in history. 
 

It’s four years later now. You still don’t have a deal. If you get one, you will end up with the crumbs. 
 

Who are you trying to fool? 

We would have had a deal many years ago if the remainers hadn't been sticking their oars in at every juncture. Their failure overturn democracy will cost them dearly, and so it should.

1 minute ago, vogie said:

We would have had a deal many years ago if the remainers hadn't been sticking their oars in at every juncture.

But you claimed, with very big mouths, that you would get one. The best one, in fact, and all within an afternoon. You either lied or you did a very bad job at assessing your position. 

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

That depends on the terms, doesn't it. We certainly won't be begging for one, or selling our NHS for one (or handing over sovereignty for one like the deluded EU chancers are still hoping for).

 

If the terms are good for both sides, an FTA is fine. If the terms are not good, WTO is fine. I won't be losing any sleep over it that's for sure ????.

Thats the spirit Jonny.

The USA needs us more than we need them. They will surely collapse when faced with a bit of bluff and bluster.

Just like the EU has.

Oh no wait. Thats not right is it.

1 minute ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

But you claimed, with very big mouths, that you would get one. The best one, in fact, and all within an afternoon. You either lied or you did a very bad job at assessing your position. 

I can totally understand your position, you know Germany will be hit very hard with a no deal Brexit, if claiming falsehoods helps you get through your day, well who am I to deny your petty little jibes. 

10 minutes ago, vogie said:

I can totally understand your position, you know Germany will be hit very hard with a no deal Brexit, if claiming falsehoods helps you get through your day, well who am I to deny your petty little jibes. 

Not as hard hit as the UK by any means. The Germans have said more than once the integrity of the single market is of prime importance and they're prepared for the consequences of a no deal Brexit. 

17 minutes ago, vogie said:

I can totally understand your position, you know Germany will be hit very hard with a no deal Brexit, if claiming falsehoods helps you get through your day, well who am I to deny your petty little jibes. 

“falsehoods” ???? 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

That prompted a warning two months ago from Biden, who has talked about the importance of his Irish heritage, that the UK must honour the 1998 agreement as it withdraws from the bloc or there can be no separate U.S. trade deal

so the unlawful legislation that BJ was drawing up trying to override the EU- Brexit withdrawal agreement on Northern Ireland, has to be removed or no USA trade deal.... well done BoJo  555

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/06/five-weeks-clinch-brexit-deal-uk-move-boris-johnson-to-say