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President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Tuesday to head to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Biden will mark 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement.
Photo by Al Drago/UPI |
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April 12 (UPI) — President Joe Biden has landed in Belfast ahead of his four-day visit to Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement, which ended decades of violence — known as the “Troubles” — in Northern Ireland.
Biden touched down in Air Force One late Tuesday night, Belfast time. He was greeted on the tarmac by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and James Senior, the commander of the 38th Irish Brigade and Northern Ireland garrison.
Biden, who comes from an Irish Catholic background, is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday at Ulster University in Belfast. His visit will “make sure the Irish accords and the Windsor agreement stay in place, to keep the peace,” Biden said before departing the United States.
The president is also expected to separately meet with leaders of Northern Ireland’s political parties. There will be no formal group meeting following recent political violence, as Belfast police remain on high alert.
When asked last month about heightened security during his visit, Biden was not concerned, saying “they can’t keep me out.”
The Good Friday peace agreement, which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland, was negotiated in 1998 with the help of the United States and former President Bill Clinton, who called it an example of conflict resolution.
“The fact that the Irish got a system that the culture of both sides could accept and that was good enough so that if neither side could prevail on … accounting for the past, I think is something to celebrate,” Clinton told Ireland’s RTE TV in an interview last week.
Bill and Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, are scheduled to attend a conference at Queen’s University in Belfast later this month to mark the Good Friday anniversary.
As Biden marks the anniversary with his visit this week, there is renewed animosity over the agreement following recent developments from Brexit, which have complicated relations.
While Biden is also expected to meet with Ireland’s president and prime minister and address the Irish parliament, the White House has not described the trip as a policy visit, but rather a personal one.
Biden will spend several days traveling through Ireland with his son Hunter Biden and sister Valerie Biden Owens who joined him on Air Force One.