One of Boris Johnson’s ministers has reacted against senior members of the US Congress as tensions between the two countries grow over Downing Street’s decision to rewrite the Northern Ireland protocol.
Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns and close ally of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said some US politicians risked seizing violent elements in the province in their public statements on the protocol.
Johnson’s decision has sparked outrage in Dublin and Brussels and now runs the risk of creating a rift between London and Washington, where Democrats and Republicans have criticized the UK government.
Several members of Congress have issued statements warning of the consequences of breaking the Northern Ireland protocol, and some say Johnson is jeopardizing the entire peace process.
Burns said, however, that he thought the language itself would encourage those who wanted to undermine the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking to the Financial Times in Washington, he said: “There is a lot of laziness here that what we are doing with the protocol is endangering or endangering peace.”
He added: “Everyone should be very temperate in the use of language. Remember that voices can resonate and can encourage people who do not have the interests of stability, calm and order in their hearts.”
Johnson released his proposals on Monday night, which would put an end to most controls on goods traveling from Britain to Northern Ireland to the ports of the Irish Sea. The new legislation would undo the commitment the Prime Minister himself reached with Brussels in 2020, which was designed to allow the UK to leave the EU without establishing a hard border on the island of Ireland.
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British ministers hope the renegotiation of the protocol will allow the Democratic Unionist Party to re-enter the Northern Ireland power-sharing agreement following the election success last month of nationalist Sinn Féin.
But Johnson’s decision has been criticized by Dublin, Brussels and even some within his own party. The EU has threatened economic retaliation, which has led Johnson to warn Brussels not to start a trade war.
The new proposals have also caused dismay in Washington, where many politicians speak proudly of their Irish ancestry.
A group of representatives of the bipartisan group Friends of Ireland in Congress issued a statement on Tuesday warning: “The introduction of legislation in the UK undermines the Northern Ireland protocol, threatens international law and, most worryingly, could jeopardize nearly 25 years of peace. established by the Good Friday Agreement. “
Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Johnson’s decision “an irresponsible measure that threatens 24 years of peace.”
Johnson sent Burns, a Belfast-born Catholic, to soften the feathers with steering wheels in Washington and to make sure members of Congress and the Biden administration were up to date with the British government’s decision-making process.
Democrats in Congress have previously warned that they would block a trade deal between the UK and the US if the British government broke the protocol. While this agreement now seems like a distant prospect, these warnings have been scarcer in recent days.
Burns said he believed many members of the U.S. government agreed with the United Kingdom on the need for a negotiated agreement between London and Brussels. But he urged members of Congress to be “incredibly prudent and prudent in their use of the language.”
“There is nothing to suggest to me that ordering the movement of goods in our country should endanger what has been 24 years and a bit of a transformed Northern Ireland,” he said.
Despite Burns’ efforts, the US administration continued to condemn the British movement. Katherine Tai, the U.S. Trade Representative, met in Geneva on Tuesday with Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the United Kingdom’s secretary of commerce, on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization ministerial conference.
The USSR said it had “discussed the Northern Ireland Protocol, which the US has welcomed as a way to manage the practical challenges of preserving the various EU and UK markets while preventing the return of customs infrastructure at the land border.
“Ambassador Tai stressed the importance of the United Kingdom and the EU continuing the negotiations in good faith to find practical solutions for their implementation. He reiterated strong US support for preserving the political and economic gains of the agreement. of Belfast / Good Friday “.
Additional report by Andy Bounds in Geneva