UK PM Sunak hopeful of resolution to Northern Ireland trade agreement

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he is hopeful a resolution could be reached with the European Union regarding the post-Brexit trade deal on Northern Ireland. Sunak is set to visit the region as talks with the bloc on the trade deal have resumed.

Speaking to the BBC on his first trip to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister, Sunak said Friday last week that he hopes a resolution with the EU could be reached on trade with Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Protocol was a trade agreement between the UK and the bloc before leaving the EU that would mandate checks on some goods moving to Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.

“The way the protocol is being implemented is threatening Northern Ireland’s place in the union. I want to fix that and that’s what I’m getting engaged constructively with our European partners on and I’m hopeful that we can find a resolution,” said Sunak.

“I want to make sure that we sit down with our European partners and allies, find a way through this, make the reforms that we need to make, and then get the executive back up and running,” said Sunak, referring to Belfast’s government and the boycott by the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party that blocks the functioning of the local assembly until the dispute is resolved.

Technical talks resumed back in October regarding the trade deal for the first time in seven months. Despite optimism from Sunak and EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that a good resolution could be reached, there has been no breakthrough so far.

The British government said Monday that Sunak would be attending the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Latvia’s capital Riga before travelling to Estonia to visit British and NATO troops. The JEF, led by the UK and comprising Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, will be addressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

At the summit, Sunak is expected to call on his counterparts to maintain or increase lethal aid, economic resilience, and political support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia in the nearly 10-month-long war.