is international recognised credibility. and i don t need to make an allusion to the present geostrategic context to say how important it is that the law is respected, that commitments are respected. well. and that should be our starting point. hang on. that allusion of yours to what s happening in russia, ukraine would be relevant if you viewed boris johnson with the same sort of suspicion that the european union and, indeed, the british government view vladimir putin. if that s the nature of the suspicious, hostile relationship that you re dealing with. i didn t say that. ..fine. i didn t say that. well, in that case, that allusion, frankly, doesn t take us very far. no, it takes us very far, because in a moment like this, it is particularly important that all of us who respect the rule of law, who stand by values and principles of the international order, are coherent with our own ideas and act in that way. that s why. .. but to suggest that the british government is flagrantly viol
any more, do you? not a question of i trust or not trust. the facts are there. if you sign an agreement which is international law, british law, eu law, and in the regular way, you try to put that in question, this is not the first time that the government does this. they did it with the internal market bill, they did with unilateral action. what are we looking forward to have is jointly agreed, common solution. this is the only way forward. and we want to do it by recognising, as i was saying, that the difficulties in implementing this protocol, we are open to talks with the british government. but i mean, how do you want to. how would you feel that the other partner of yours wants to discuss by saying what we have agreed a couple of years ago is.? well, the funny thing is. it s very difficult to create a good climate for negotiations if the starting point is to say, i need to redraft everything. if you see this as a fight where there has to be a winner and a loser, maybe.