UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday ruled out imminent changes to the talks on the Northern Ireland protocol included in the Brexit arrangements.
While he said he is working «non-stop» to try to resolve the situation, he warned that the talks are unlikely to come to fruition soon. During a visit to Belfast, the Northern Irish capital, Sunak has expressed that he is «committed to the idea of resolving the problems generated by the Northern Ireland protocol».
«My aim is to protect Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and, in that way, to restore the Executive,» he said, referring to the failure of the Northern Ireland Assembly to elect its Speaker due to the blocking of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which still refuses to give its assent and return to the Executive until the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol is resolved.
According to Sunak, this is «what the people of Northern Ireland need and it is what their government is working on.» «I have not set a deadline for talks (between the Government and the European Union) and I don’t want to raise people’s expectations of an imminent resolution,» he stressed, according to reports in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper.
In this sense, he has pointed out that the talks are still going on and has guaranteed that he is «working as hard as possible to find a solution as soon as possible». «I want to do it as soon as I can,» he said.
His comments come after he met with the leaders of the five main political forces at Stormont, the Northern Ireland National Assembly, on his first visit to the area as UK Prime Minister.
