Officials from both countries said a meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly would allow for a “fuller” bilateral discussion and was not the result of friction. But every time the two leaders meet, they face disagreements over Northern Ireland. “We are in constant contact with Downing Street and we have both decided that it is preferable to have a full bilateral meeting in New York on Wednesday,” a government official said. Biden and Truss will find plenty of common ground to take a hard line on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and curb Chinese expansionism. But Northern Ireland policy is a major irritant in the US-UK relationship. The protocol is a post-Brexit agreement with the EU that places customs checks on goods moving from the British mainland to Northern Ireland, allowing the north-south border to remain open and frictionless, a vital element of its peace Good Friday 1998 agreement. The Biden administration has already warned that any unilateral steps to scrap the Northern Ireland protocol would not be “conducive” to a US-UK trade deal, and the president, who is proud of his Irish roots, is expected to make clear his personal his commitment to defend the Good Friday agreement and to urge Truss to continue negotiations with Brussels. “People here are watching and [they] care,” said a senior US official. “Truss continues to say it wants a negotiated deal. Come on let’s do it.” Arguing that the protocol places too heavy a burden on British businesses, Truss has proposed unilaterally canceling parts of the agreement and is considering invoking Article 16 which allows a party to the agreement to suspend part or all of the protocol if it causes “serious economic, social or environmental difficulties”. The protocol is also likely to feature in her talks on Sunday with Irish leader Micheál Martin, part of a hastily arranged diplomatic tour as representatives from nearly all of the world’s 195 countries, including 100 presidents, gather for the queen’s funeral. Truss hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern at Chevening, her official residence in Kent, on Saturday. The meetings were framed by Downing Street as talks. He will also meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at No 10 on Sunday. Choosing who to meet allows the new Truss government to send messages about its priorities. Her picks highlight the English-speaking intelligence coalition Five Eyes as the anchor of “global Britain”. Duda is the only leader outside that group, a nod of solidarity to NATO’s eastern flank. It also sends negative messages: a handful of countries have not been invited to the funeral – Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar. The power of the snub was underlined by the fact that North Korea received an invitation to the post, albeit only at ambassadorial level. The sting was felt in Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the snub “deeply immoral” and “blasphemous” to the queen’s memory. China has been invited and Beijing is sending Vice President Wang Qishan, despite Chinese officials not being allowed to visit the queen’s coffin as it lay in state. The Speaker of the House of Commons refused them entry because China had banned several members of parliament for their criticism of the country’s human rights record. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to come to London to convey Riyadh’s condolences. However, he is not expected to attend the funeral. It is unclear whether this was due to Buckingham’s fear of negative publicity or his reluctance to participate in an event where he would not be recognized as the front-runner, albeit with other leaders. If a successor comes in — a final decision had not yet been made Saturday — he will hope it proves to be a step away from isolation following the 2018 killing of dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. His human rights record has continued to sink. with the recent 45-year prison sentence given to a mother of five for tweets deemed critical. He will hope to build on his family’s long-standing relationship with King Charles, who has visited Saudi Arabia a dozen times as Prince of Wales. Truly international funeral diplomacy is relatively recent. He relies on air travel to fly in leaders from around the world within days and refrigeration to preserve the dead until they arrive.
