WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar expressed support for a UK-EU deal on post-Brexit trade rules as the two leaders met at the White House on Friday.
The leaders spoke briefly to reporters at the start of their meeting in the Oval Office, where Biden reaffirmed his ongoing support for the Good Friday Agreement, which largely brought an end to political violence in Northern Ireland 25 years ago.
Biden earlier this week said he intended to visit the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland around the anniversary of the agreement next month.
London and Brussels reached a deal last month that seeks to resolve the tensions caused by the Northern Ireland protocol that set trade rules in the aftermath of Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Biden said he had spoken with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who struck the deal known as the Windsor Framework, during a meeting in California.
“I very much, very strongly supported the Windsor Framework, which I know you do too,” Biden said alongside Varadkar.
Varadkar thanked the United States for its support for Ireland’s position on Brexit, which he said “really made a difference.”
A key test of the deal is its ability to convince the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, to end a year-long boycott of the power-sharing government in Belfast over the original post-Brexit trade rules.
Varadkar told reporters after the meeting that Biden was “very keen to see the institutions up and running again in Northern Ireland and hopefully see the Windsor Framework fully put into operation.”
Ahead of the meeting, Biden said he wanted to discuss deepening economic ties with the Irish leader and thanked Varadkar for standing with the United States in supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Rami Ayyub; Writing by Simon Lewis; Editing by Mark Porter and Paul Simao)
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