Tuesday saw the arrival of US Vice President Joe Biden in Northern Ireland, where he will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Additionally, he will spend three days in the Republic of Ireland as part of his journey.
Before boarding Air Force One, Biden gave a press conference in which he stated that the trip's goal was to ensure the deal, which was negotiated by Washington and approved by London and Dublin, will have a lasting impact.
The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, created a tenuous truce between nationalists who supported unification with the Republic of Ireland and unionist parties who wanted Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The development effectively put an end to three decades of bloodshed that claimed more than 3,500 lives.
According to Biden, a controversial trade agreement known as the Windsor Framework, reached in the wake of Brexit, will also be supported during his visit.
While Northern Ireland has left the EU as a result of the UK, the Republic of Ireland is still a member of the European Union. The Windsor Framework grants Northern Ireland special status in order to maintain its open border with the Republic of Ireland and prevent any historically tense splits.
However, the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland has steadfastly opposed the accord and has boycotted attempts to form a government since May. This has put the delicate power-sharing arrangement achieved in the 1998 Good Friday settlement in jeopardy.
According to Biden, the goal of the trip was to "ensure that the Windsor agreement and the Irish accords remain in place, to keep the peace."
That is the primary issue, he continued. "And it appears that we will — cross your fingers."
On Tuesday, Biden will have a meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Belfast.
He will speak at Ulster University in Belfast the next day to "mark the tremendous progress" made since the 1998 peace agreements were signed, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
The main political parties in Northern Ireland will reportedly meet with Biden, according to UK media, even though these meetings are not on Biden's official calendar.
A close ally of Biden's, US Congressman Richard Neal, said on the BBC's HARDtalk show that the Biden administration will "gently prod" and "nudge" the DUP.
Tony Blair, a former British prime minister who worked on the 1998 peace accord, nevertheless forbade Biden on Tuesday from applying undue pressure to the party while he was in Belfast.
Even if pressure comes from the US, he told the BBC, "trying to get them to do something they fundamentally disagree with is usually futile pressure."Meanwhile, during an illegal nationalist march in Londonderry, also known as Derry, a city on the border of Northern Ireland and Ireland with a long, symbolic history in local tensions, masked youths threw petrol bombs at police vehicles on Monday, signaling the persistence of unrest in the area.
The southernmost portion of the island of Ireland, which makes up around 80% of its landmass, is home to the Republic of Ireland. The remainder of the island's northeast is where you can find Northern Ireland.
Visit to Republic of Ireland
Biden will visit Dublin on Wednesday before moving on to County Louth, where the 80-year-old will reacquaint himself with his frequently mentioned Irish background.
As one of the most "Irish" of all US presidents, according to Ireland's Irish Family History Centre, Biden hails from the Emerald Isle with 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents. During the Great Famine in the middle of the 19th century, which is thought to have killed one million people, everyone departed for the US.
President Michael Higgins of Ireland and Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, who paid Biden a visit in the Oval Office on St. Patrick's Day last month, will meet separately with Biden on Thursday in Dublin. After making a speech to the Irish Parliament, he will attend a supper banquet.
On Friday, his last day in Ireland, the president will spend time in County Mayo researching his ancestry and giving a speech about ties between the US and Ireland.
Biden will speak in front of a 19th-century cathedral that was constructed with bricks that were provided by his great-great-great-grandfather, civil engineer and brickmaker Edward Blewitt, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
She stated that it would be an opportunity to "celebrate the deep, historic ties that unite our countries and people."
The visit precedes a three-day conference that will be held in honor of the 1998 peace treaty and will be chaired by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and begin on April 17.
As US president from 1993 to 2001, her husband Bill Clinton was crucial in achieving the agreement.
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