A senior adviser in the Biden administration has urged the UK not to cause more “flare ups” over Northern Ireland as Brexit talks reopen in London. In an unusually blunt intervention for a policy adviser, the US Department of State counsellor Derek Chollet said the row over the Northern Ireland protocol needed to be resolved. “The last thing we need is flare-ups right at a moment where transatlantic unity, European unity, is more important than ever. That is our north star,” he said. “We understand that there’s some practical realities and that adjustments could be made. But we don’t think that unilateral steps are helpful. We want to see the temperature go down on this, and I think, to everyone’s credit, it has in recent weeks,” he added.
His comments came during a visit to London before travelling to Northern Ireland on Monday and just hours before the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, landed in London for a bilateral meeting with his British counterpart, James Cleverly. It is unusual for a state department official to be so frank about their wish for better relations post-Brexit, but it appears Washington senses there is finally a mood in London and Brussels to reach a compromise that the US can encourage. The row over the protocol has ruptured Anglo-Irish and British-European relations, and cast a shadow over the UK’s “special relationship” with the US. Joe Biden has made it clear several times in the past few months that the Good Friday agreement should not be undermined by domestic politics. Chollet said: “We want to see the UK and the EU have a strong relationship. We’re at a moment now when we think transatlantic unity is very, very important. It is imperative that we work together.” The UK’s decision to return to talks with the EU after an eight-month standoff has partly been driven by the US and partly by Liz Truss’s realisation that she does not have the bandwidth to keep the row growing in face of the war in Ukraine and a series of domestic crises relating to the economy and cost of living. In a meeting between the British prime minister and the US president in New York last month, the importance of the Northern Ireland peace deal and transatlantic unity in the face of an escalating security crisis caused by Russia were restated by the US administration. Chollet welcomed Truss’s decision to attend the first meeting of the European Political Community in Prague, something she had said she had little interest in just a few months ago. She told broadcasters on Thursday evening it was “very important that we work with our neighbours and allies to face down Putin but also deal with the issues we face”. Cleverly and Coveney are expected to discuss Ukraine, the UN security council and Brexit at a working dinner on Thursday. Further talks with the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, and the Northern Ireland minister, Steve Baker, will be held on Friday morning at the British Irish intergovernmental conference (BIIGC). There have been indications from both the EU and the UK that they are determined to arrive at a negotiated solution. On Thursday, Ireland’s deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar, who clinched the protocol deal with the then British prime minister, Boris Johnson, sent a strong signal to the UK that there was scope for a deal. He conceded that the protocol was “a little too strict”, saying there was room “for more flexibility” in the controversial Brexit arrangements that were designed to avoid a border on the island of Ireland. “One thing that I would concede is that perhaps the protocol as it was originally designed was a little too strict,” Varadkar told reporters in Dublin. “The protocol is not being fully implemented and yet it is still working. I think that demonstrates that there is some room for further flexibility, for changes that hopefully will make it acceptable to all sides. “I think there is a window of opportunity now over the next couple of weeks to see if we can come to an agreement on the protocol.”