Carbis Bay, England:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday as “a big breath of fresh air”, and praised his determination to work with allies on crucial international concerns ranging from climate adjust and COVID-19 to safety.
Johnson did not draw an explicit parallel involving Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump following talks with the Democratic president in the English seaside resort of Carbis Bay on the eve of a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) sophisticated economies.
But his comments made clear Biden had taken a a great deal more multilateral strategy to talks than Trump, whose vision of the world at occasions shocked, angered and bewildered quite a few of Washington’s European allies.
“It’s a big breath of fresh air,” Johnson mentioned of a meeting that lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.
“It was a long, long, good session. We covered a huge range of subjects,” he mentioned. “It’s new, it’s interesting and we’re working very hard together.”
The two leaders appeared relaxed as they admired the view across the Atlantic alongside their wives, with Jill Biden wearing a jacket embroidered with the word “LOVE”.
“It’s a beautiful beginning,” she mentioned.
Though Johnson mentioned the talks have been “great”, Biden brought grave issues about a row involving Britain and the European Union which he mentioned could threaten peace in the British area of Northern Ireland, which following Britain’s departure from the EU is on the United Kingdom’s frontier with the bloc as it borders EU member state Ireland.
The two leaders did not have a joint briefing following the meeting: Johnson spoke to British media whilst Biden made a speech about a U.S. program to donate half a billion vaccines to poorer nations.
Northern Ireland
Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, was keen to avert challenging negotiations involving Brussels and London undermining a 1998 U.S.-brokered peace deal recognized as the Good Friday Agreement that ended 3 decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
White House national safety adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Britain that Biden had a “rock-solid belief” in the peace deal and that any methods that imperilled the accord would not be welcomed.
Yael Lempert, the leading U.S. diplomat in Britain, issued London with a demarche – a formal diplomatic reprimand – for “inflaming” tensions, the Times newspaper reported.
Johnson sought to play down the variations with Washington.
“There’s complete harmony on the need to keep going, find solutions, and make sure we uphold the Belfast Good Friday Agreement,” mentioned Johnson, one of the leaders of the 2016 campaign to leave the EU.
Asked if Biden had made his alarm about the predicament in Northern Ireland quite clear, he mentioned: “No he didn’t.
“America, the United States, Washington, the UK, plus the European Union have one point we definitely all want to do,” Johnson said. “And that is to uphold the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, and make sure we preserve the balance of the peace course of action going. That is definitely typical ground.”
The 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to the “Troubles” – three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant “loyalist” paramilitaries in which 3,600 people were killed.
Britain’s exit from the EU has strained the peace in Northern Ireland. The 27-nation bloc wants to protect its markets but a border in the Irish Sea cuts off the British province from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Although Britain formally left the EU in 2020, the two sides are still trading threats over the Brexit deal after London unilaterally delayed the implementation of the Northern Irish clauses of the deal.
Johnson’s Downing Street office said he and Biden agreed that both Britain and the EU “had a duty to work with each other and to come across pragmatic options to enable unencumbered trade” between Northern Ireland, Britain and Ireland.”
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)