US president Joe Biden is expected to hail the “tremendous progress” since the signing of the Belfast Agreement and emphasise Washington’s readiness to preserve those gains and to boost Northern Ireland’s economy in a speech in Belfast later today.
Mr Biden, who arrived last night for a four-day visit to Ireland, will deliver a keynote speech at Ulster University’s new Belfast campus today in what is his only engagement in the North before departing for Dublin.
Speaking on his departure from Washington to Belfast yesterday, Mr Biden said the priorities for his visit were to “make sure the Irish accords and the Windsor agreement stay in place, to keep the peace.”
He descended the steps of the aircraft followed by the US special economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy III, and met and shook hands with the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak. He is also accompanied by his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and son Hunter Biden, who the president said earlier had not visited Ireland before.
Everyone knew what Biden’s Irish visit was about apart from the sulking British press
Justine McCarthy: British media was right - Joe Biden’s Ireland belongs to Dark Ages
Joe Biden’s visit to Ireland contained some hard messages for us
US media take dim view of Biden’s ‘taxpayer-funded family reunion’ in Ireland
After the greetings, the presidential party then departed in the presidential motorcade for the centre of Belfast where he spent the night.
The largest security operation in Northern Ireland for 10 years is in place around the visit, with road closures in Belfast city centre and around its international airport.
The US president is due to have a half-hour meeting with Mr Sunak in advance of Wednesday’s speech.
Mr Biden is also scheduled to greet the leaders of the North’s main political parties, but there will not be a formal group meeting.
The White House again maintained that the Biden administration wanted to see Stormont back up and running.
“We’d like to see the National Assembly returned, clearly”, the White House said in a press briefing en route to Belfast.
The UK prime minister will not be in the audience for the president’s speech and will not meet political leaders while in Northern Ireland.
Mr Sunak is due to present an award to six-year-old Dáithi Mac Gabhann, whose campaign changed the law to bring in an opt-in organ donation system in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, Downing Street denied Mr Sunak’s engagement with the president was “low-key” after the New York Times reported the White House wanted to scale back their meeting from a bilateral to a coffee and quoted an official who jokingly referred to it as a “bi-latte”.
Speaking on Tuesday, a British government spokesperson said the president’s actions “demonstrate that we have a close relationship”, adding “we continue to have an incredibly positive working relationship with the president and US government.”
It is understood there have been some tensions behind the scenes between Washington and London over the visit, which the UK had hoped would include a visit to Britain.
The White House’s reference to the trip as a visit to “the United Kingdom and Ireland” is believed to be an attempt to smooth relations between the two countries.
Asked at Monday’s press briefing if a meeting with King Charles was “not happening”, the White House press secretary John Kirby said Mr Biden had a “terrific conversation” with him last week and the First Lady would represent the US at the coronation in May.
The Northern Ireland leg of the visit was scaled back last week after it was announced the president’s itinerary would not include an address at Parliament Buildings to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Biden had been invited by the speaker, Alex Maskey, and it is understood security scoping had taken place at Stormont.
Sources familiar with the visit said this was due to logistics, but there has been speculation the decision was taken for political reasons, as the Northern Assembly and Executive are not functioning because of the DUP’s boycott over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
While Mr Biden has repeatedly endorsed the Windsor Framework as a way to overcome the impasse over the Northern Ireland protocol, most recently when the Taoiseach and other leaders – including DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson – visited Washington for St Patrick’s Day, it is not thought likely that he will use the visit to Belfast to push the DUP on the issue.
It is not expected that Mr Biden will seek to “twist arms” in the way that former president Bill Clinton did at key points in the peace process during the 1990s. Rather the approach of Dublin, London and Washington is to leave Mr Donaldson the time and space to make up his mind and manage his own party. Their expectation remains, however, that the DUP will ultimately rejoin the powersharing institutions, although perhaps not for some time.
Mr Kirby indicated that the president would have a three-part message in his speech on Wednesday.
He said Mr Biden would put the Belfast Agreement “into some sort of historical context and to talk about the importance of that”.
Mr Kirby suggested the speech would also be targeted at the younger generation “and how they are literally just changing the face of high-tech innovations in Northern Ireland and the impact that they are having economically and domestically, politically inside their own country”.
Mr Kirby said the president would also talk about trade and economic prosperity “and the opportunities that open up between the United States and the UK”.
Mr Kirby said at the meeting between Mr Biden and the Northern Ireland political leaders, the president would also highlight the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement and focus on trade and economics.
Mr Biden had strongly urged the UK and the EU over the last year to reach an agreement over the Northern Ireland protocol. In recent weeks he has warmly welcomed the Windsor framework.
