LONDON (UK) – US President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday he did not want to see a border guarded between Ireland and the United Kingdom. He added that discussions about the same has been done by him with the British and Irish prime ministers and other European leaders.
Biden had emphasised how important it is to protect Northern Ireland’s peace deal in the Brexit process in a call with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier in the month.
Johnson’s government is aiming for a trade deal with the European Union, however, it has also said that it is willing to leave without one. That could make the situation slightly complicated at the Northern Irish border with Ireland, found to be sensitive, which is the UK’s only land border with the EU.
Biden told journalists in Wilmington, Delaware, that the border must be open.
When asked about what he would say to reporters, “We do not want a guarded border,” he said.
Biden, who has talked about the importance of his Irish heritage, cautioned months ago that the UK must honour the 1998 agreement as it pulls out from the bloc or there can be no separate US trade deal.
Johnson and Biden have has never had a direct interaction and commentators have suggested the prime minister will have to work hard to foster the “special relationship” between the historic allies.