Biden: Guarded Irish border ‘just not right’

A border dividing Ireland and Northern Ireland "is just not right," U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said.

“We do not want a guarded border," Biden told reporters on Tuesday. "We want to make sure — we’ve worked too long to get Ireland worked out ... The idea of having a border north and south once again being closed is just not right, we’ve just got to keep the border open.”

Biden said he had spoken to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin as well as the French and others about the issue.

It isn't the first time Biden, who has Irish roots, has spoken about the impact of Brexit on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

In September, Biden said, "We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit," and retweeted a letter to Johnson from members of the U.S. House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee, which warned that Congress would not pass a U.S.-U.K. trade deal if Britain fails to uphold commitments to Northern Ireland.

The move came after the U.K. government acknowledged its Internal Market Bill would break international law by giving ministers the power to change elements of the Withdrawal Agreement London struck with Brussels last year.

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