BELFAST, Northern Ireland — President Joe Biden celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on Wednesday, emphasizing the significance of the peace deal and reaffirming the United States’ commitment to Northern Ireland's growth.
Biden was still a senator in Congress when he helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement, which mostly ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, in 1998. The deal “shifted the political gravity in our world,” he said in Belfast on Wednesday, day two of a trip that will take him to both Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Preserving peace in Northern Ireland is also one of the few topics that Democrats and Republicans can agree on nowadays, he said, underscoring the importance of showing continued support to the region. His remarks came at the tail end of a brief visit to Northern Ireland, during which he hailed the agreement but sought to avoid entangling himself in the region’s current messy politics.
“Where barbed wire one sliced up the city, today we find a cathedral of learning built of glass that lets the [light shine] in and out,” Biden said. The agreement "just has a profound impact for someone who has come back to see it. It's an incredible testament to the power and the possibilities of peace.”
Northern Ireland has been unable to form a government for nearly a year under rules that require its main pro-British party — the Democratic Unionist Party — to share power with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. The DUP is also holding out against a proposal aimed at settling post-Brexit trade concerns between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
But Biden made only glancing mention of the standoff, emphasizing the importance of democratic institutions and urging all parties in Northern Ireland to work together.
"For politics, no matter what divides us, if we look hard enough, there's always areas that's going to bring us together," Biden said.
Northern Ireland has prospered overall since the agreement, Biden noted, even as critics say that it's failing. Its gross domestic product has doubled, an initial number Biden said he expects to triple if growth stays on track as American businesses continue investing in the region. The president also nodded, as he often does, to Irish arts and culture, which has produced world-renowned poetry, movies and television shows in recent years.
Much of that growth has been driven by young people, Biden added, who will push Northern Ireland forward in widening fields like cyber and clean energy. The president also announced that later this year, Joe Kennedy III, the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs, will lead a trade delegation of American companies to Northern Ireland.
“It's up to us to keep this going,” he said, pledging to “sustain the peace, unleash this incredible economic opportunity, which is just beginning … Your history is our history. But even more important, your future is America's future.”
Biden has studiously avoided any thorny political territory during his stint in Northern Ireland, saying only that he was “going to listen” to party leaders during a private meeting ahead of his speech.
The president earlier on Wednesday also ignored questions about the potential for a trade deal sought by the U.K., and officials said they did not expect him to address the issue during a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Still, those political tensions have trailed Biden throughout what has largely been billed as a personal trip to reconnect with his ancestral roots.
Amanda Sloat, the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe, faced several questions on Wednesday about whether Biden’s pride in his Irish background signaled a dislike for the U.K.
“It’s simply untrue,” she said. “President Biden obviously is a very proud Irish American, he is proud of those Irish roots, but he is also a strong supporter of our bilateral relationship with the U.K.”
Sloat added that the Biden administration was working “in lockstep” with the U.K. on a variety of global challenges.
Perhaps aware of the scrutiny of his allegiances, Biden during his speech at Ulster University made uncharacteristically little mention of his Irish heritage. Instead, he kicked off the speech with a different anecdote about his family history, reminding the crowd that “Biden is English too.”
Following the speech, the president traveled to the Irish Republic for the first time since he traced his lineage through the countryside as vice president in 2016.
Myah Ward contributed to this report.
