He marked this week’s 25th anniversary of the 1998 accord,which ended three decades of conflict known as The Troubles,by dangling a £5 billion ($9.3 billion) carrot in front of Northern Ireland’s leaders with a promise to boost the country’s economy with US investment if the power-sharing government was restored.
The Democratic Unionist Party collapsed the executive in May 2022 over objections to post-Brexit trading arrangements. Biden met Sir Jeffrey Donaldson,the DUP’s leader,before his speech,as well as the leaders of other major Northern Irish parties.
“Peace and economic opportunity go together,” Biden said during his remarks,predicting many American businesses were ready to invest in Northern Ireland.
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“As a friend,I hope it’s not too presumptuous of me to say that I believe democratic institutions established in the Good Friday Agreement remain critical for the future of Northern Ireland. That’s a judgment for you to make,not me ... but I hope it happens.”
Biden earlier had met separately with the leaders of the five parties that made up the pact,during which he stressed the importance of resuming the arrangement as part of the peace deal.
The UK government had hoped the so-calledWindsor framework – an Irish Sea border treaty with the European Union – would pave the way for the restoration of the devolved parliament ahead of Biden’s visit.