Boris Johnson ‘rock solid’ confident of an EU deal – as he shows Putin that Britain means business by posing on a tank in Estonia
The Foreign Secretary said the EU and UK could 'come together' in negotiations as he joined British troops in a Nato deployment
BORIS JOHNSON claimed he was “rock solid confident” a Brexit deal can be done as he hit back at arrogant EU chiefs.
A day after Eurocrats ripped into Theresa May’s government, the Foreign Secretary used a visit to troops in Estonia to turn his guns on Brussels.
After jumping into a British Challenger tank, BoJo said there was no question Brexit Secretary David Davis could thrash out an agreement on our future trade relationships with the EU.
He said the EU’s own rules made it “very clear” that future trade arrangements had to be part of the two-year divorce talks.
And he said it wasn’t “beyond the wit of man” to solve the future of the Irish border – regardless of the sniping from EU officials.
He said: “I think we can all work together to come up with a solution on that one. It is not beyond the wit of man.
“We’ve had a common travel area between the north and the south of Ireland for getting on for a century and we’re going to continue to make that work.”
The rallying cry came 24 hours after Eurocrats lined up to attack Ministers over the state of the Brexit negotiations.
Minutes revealed European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker had questioned the “stability” of David Davis in a stinging personal insult.
Separately, European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said the start of trade talks may have to be pushed back to December.
And the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier slammed the Government for appearing to want to use Ireland as a “kind of test case” for its customs relations with the rest of the EU.
Britain has proposed an ‘invisible border’ without border posts or immigration checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic – but has yet to say how these would be monitored.
The EU has repeatedly insisted it can only begin talks on a future trade deal once it has made “sufficient progress” on Ireland, citizens’ rights and a divorce bill.
Boris Johnson was in Estonia for a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers. Britain sent 800 troops to the Baltic state earlier this year as part of a NATO deployment to try and ‘deter’ Russian aggression.
Mr Johnson said: “In an increasingly complex world, Britain remains a reassuring presence to its friends, especially those facing continued Russian antagonism in the north of Europe and the Baltic region.
“Our troop commitment to Estonia is a firm demonstration that Britain will always stand by its allies in the face of outside aggression, and a message to others that the unity that Nato provides and sustains will never be broken.