British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday insisted that his new Brexit plan would "in no circumstances" result in checks at or near the border of Northern Ireland - though he did not define "near".
"Today PM @BorisJohnson has set out a fair and reasonable compromise for replacing the backstop so we can get Brexit done by 31 October," 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Miniter, tweeted.
The new plan contains alternatives to the contentious Irish backstop issue, which Johnson describes as a "bridge to nowhere", and involves a customs union between the United Kingdom and the bloc in order to avoid a hard Irish border, Al Jazeera reported.
Addressing the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said, "We will under no circumstances have checks at or near the border in Northern Ireland. We will respect the peace process and the Good Friday agreement," he said, referring to a 1998 deal that ended "decades of violence."
"And by a process of renewable democratic consent by the executive and assembly of Northern Ireland we will go further and protect the existing regulatory arrangements for farmers and other businesses on both sides of the border," he added.
"And at the same time, we will allow the UK - whole and entire - to withdraw from the EU, with control of our own trade policy from the start," Johnson also said.
The British PM urged the European Union to compromise as he prepared to put forward a "constructive and reasonable proposal" to Brussels to resolve the Brexit deadlock.
Johnson will speak to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday afternoon, but the commission said it would not "pre-empt any reaction" before having a chance to study the proposals to replace the backstop, which was a part of a deal the EU reached with Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May.
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