US president Joe Biden is set to issue a fresh Brexit warning to prime minister Boris Johnson during their first face-to-face meeting at the G7 summit this week.
The Times reports Biden will use a bilateral meeting with the PM to explicitly express US support for the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The pair will meet ahead of world leaders arriving at the summit in Cornwall.
The president is reportedly also planning to tell Johnson that the Brexit arrangements are an integral part of maintaining long-term peace in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement – which the US is a guarantor of.
He is also set to warn the PM that the prospect of a trade deal hinges on the success of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
But Biden is also expected to also urge the EU to be less “bureaucratic” and to be more flexible in its implementation.
Over the weekend, Lord Frost – the UK’s Brexit negotiator – accused the EU of “legal purism” in an article for the Financial Times.
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Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney tweeted in response: “Lord Frost continues to lay blame for difficulty with Protocol at EU inflexibility. This is simply not the case.
“Maros Sefcovic & EU have consistently proposed new solutions.
“Is this about media messaging in UK or really solving problems together?”
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