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Technical talks resumed in October for the first time in seven
months on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the part of the Brexit
deal that mandated checks on some goods moving to Northern
Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier
this month she was "very confident" a positive conclusion was
within reach, but there has so far been no breakthrough in the
renewed negotiations.
"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 resolution," Sunak
told the BBC on his first trip to Northern Ireland as premier.
"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 (Northern Ireland) executive back
up and running."
The stalemate has held back a normalisation of relations between
Britain and the EU and plunged Northern Irish politics into
crisis, with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
blocking the functioning of the local assembly and devolved
government until the checks are removed.
The Belfast Telegraph newspaper separately quoted Sunak as
saying he will not be putting a deadline on the talks.
The protocol was designed to avoid politically contentious
checks between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, but many
unionists argue the effective border created in the Irish Sea
erases part of their British identity.
Both sides say they also want to protect the gains made by the
1998 Good Friday peace agreement that largely ended three
decades of sectarian and political bloodshed during which 3,600
people were killed.
Ireland's foreign minister said last week that the two sides
have made progress on sharing real-time customs data relating to
the protocol but are "not quite there yet" on an issue that
could help unlock an agreement.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, writing by Padraic Halpin;
editing by William James and Angus MacSwan)
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