Joe Biden has praised Rishi Sunak’s post-Brexit deal with the EU and said it could bring “significant” US investment into Northern Ireland. The US president backed the Windsor Framework compromise aimed at ending the protocol row, as he shared his hopes that Northern Irish parties will return to powersharing arrangements “soon”.
Mr Biden was careful not to mention the DUP’s refusal to return to Stormont during his speech in Belfast yesterday – but insisted that getting stable, devolved government up and running could deliver an economic windfall for the region. In a keynote address at Ulster University marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Mr Biden said the protocol deal opposed by the DUP was an “essential step” in making sure peace and progress were “preserved and strengthened”.
The president said: “As a friend, I hope it’s not too presumptuous for me to say that I believe the democratic institutions established in the Good Friday Agreement remain critical for the future of Northern Ireland. It’s a decision for you to make – not for me to make, but it seems to me they are related. An effective devolved government ... a government that works to find ways through hard problems together, is going to draw even greater opportunity in this region,” he told the Belfast audience.
Mr Biden added: “So, I hope the assembly and the executive will soon be restored. That’s a judgement for you to make, not me, but I hope it happens, along with the institutions that facilitate north-south and east-west relations, all of which are vital pieces of the Good Friday Agreement.”
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