Joe Biden has cautioned he will not allow peace in Northern Ireland to become a “casualty of Brexit” if he is elected US President in November.
The Democratic candidate said any UK-US trade deal had to be “contingent” on respect for the Good Friday Agreement.
UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab has been trying to reassure US politicians about the latest Brexit developments during a trip to Washington.
In Mr Raab’s meeting with US Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, he sought to reassure her that the UK government wouldn’t undermine the Good Friday Agreement and would never erect a hard border in Northern Ireland.
But Pelosi said there was “no chance” of a UK-US trade deal getting through the US Congress if the UK violated international agreements, undermining the Good Friday Agreement.
After a meeting with Mr Raab, the Speaker of the House of Representatives said the UK’s exit from the EU could not be allowed to “imperil” peace in Northern Ireland.
She said the lower house of Congress, which is currently controlled by her party, would defend the 1998 Good Friday Agreement as a “beacon of hope for peace-loving people throughout the whole world”.
Mr Biden, who is going up against US President, Donald Trump in November’s election, also tweeted,
“We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit.”
“Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
Brexit is high on the agenda at Washington meetings after the UK proposed a law which would give its government the power to override part of the Brexit withdrawal deal Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed with the EU in October 2019.
If the law comes into force, it would breach international law, a prospect that prompted an angry response from senior figures in the US last week.
Four senior congressmen had earlier issued a similar warning, saying a UK-US trade deal would be blocked if the UK failed to preserve the gains of the Good Friday Agreement.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, the four congressmen said the plans to give ministers powers to override part of the UK’s exit agreement designed to avoid a hard Irish border could have “disastrous consequences for the Good Friday Agreement and broader process to maintain peace on the island of Ireland”.
“We therefore urge you to abandon any and all legally questionable and unfair efforts to flout the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal agreement and look to ensure that Brexit negotiations do not undermine the decades of progress to bring peace to Northern Ireland,” the letter added.
The letter was signed by Democratic congressmen Eliot Engel, Richard Neal, and Bill Keating, who all chair committees in the US House of Representatives, as well as Republican Congressman Peter King.
Mr Raab said “the threat to the Good Friday Agreement comes from the EU’s politicisation of the issue”.
He defended the bill as “precautionary and proportionate” adding “what we can’t have is the EU seeking to erect a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Britain”.
