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BELFAST, Dec 15 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was to arrive in Northern Ireland on Thursday to meet with the main political parties in his first visit to the region since taking office in October, his office said.
The talks are likely to focus on the dispute over post-Brexit trade rules governing the region, which have blocked the normalization of relations between Britain and the European Union and plunged domestic politics into crisis.
After a long stalemate, Britain and the European Union resumed talks in October on how to fix problems related to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which introduced checks last year on some goods coming from the rest of the United Kingdom.
The EU has said it is “very confident” that a positive conclusion is within reach if Britain shows the political will.
Any deal would need to overcome opposition within Sunac’s Conservative Party and Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party.
Sunac’s office said he was due to hold “initial meetings and informal discussions” with the leaders of the five main parties, including the DUP and Irish nationalist Sinn Féin.
The DUP withdrew from Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government in February, a key part of the 1998 peace deal, in protest at the trade probe. Neither a power-sharing government nor the Stormont Assembly can function without the support of the DUP.
The Sunac meetings follow a roundtable with party leaders hosted by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland earlier in the day to discuss solutions for the return of power-sharing government to the region.
Sunac was also due to meet with Northern Ireland businesses and communities.
Regarding the proposed deal to assemble three Royal Navy solid support ships at Harland and Wolfe’s shipyard in Belfast, the statement said the trip would mark “the return of naval shipbuilding to Northern Ireland”.
Writing by Conor Humphries, reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by James Davey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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