Joe Biden will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a keynote speech in Belfast as he kicks off the first day of his historic trip to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The US president’s four-day trip marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1998, and is the first from a US president in a decade.
Mr Biden also wants to make sure the recent Windsor Framework deal between the European Union and Britain remains in place. That deal has so far failed to convince the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - one of the biggest parties at Stormont - to end a boycott of the devolved power-sharing government, a key part of the 1998 peace deal.
The DUP has said Mr Biden’s visit will not pressure it to end its more than year-long protest at the trade rules that treat the province differently to the rest of the UK.
While Mr Biden is expected to greet representatives of the DUP and the other four main Northern Ireland political parties, it is unclear if they will hold separate meetings.
Mr Sunak greeted his US counterpart on Tuesday evening when he landed in Belfast, and the pair will meet again for talks around 11.30am on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters before his departure, Mr Biden said that his top priority was to “make sure the Irish accords and the Windsor Agreement stay in place, keep the peace”.
His son Hunter Biden and sister Valerie Biden Owen are believed to be accompanying him for the trip.
Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland
A major security operation is in place for the visit, with more than 300 officers from the rest of the UK being drafted into Northern Ireland.
Following talks with Mr Sunak, the US President will deliver a keynote speech at Ulster University’s new £350 million Belfast campus, where he is expected to hail the “tremendous progress” made since the landmark peace deal. Mr Sunak will not attend the keynote speech.
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National security council co-ordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said the president’s speech would “underscore the readiness of the United States to preserve those gains and support Northern Ireland’s vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities”.
Mr Biden will also travel to Co Louth, where his great-grandfather James Finegan was born, and tour Carlingford Castle before spending the night in Dublin.
He will then meet Irish President Michael D Higgins on Thursday and take part in a tree-planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell at the president’s official residence, Aras an Uachtarain, before meeting the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and addressing a joint session of the Irish parliament.
The trip comes as police recovered four suspected pipe bombs from a cemetery in Londonderry where a republican commemoration was staged on Easter Monday.
It follows scenes of violence in the Creggan area of the city when a number of missiles, including petrol bombs, were hurled by young people at a police Land Rover monitoring the pre-commemoration parade.
The illegal parade started when a number of masked men in paramilitary-style dress formed a colour party carrying the Irish flag and a host of republican flags.
There was another reminder of Northern Ireland’s violent past when it was announced on the eve of the President’s visit that a west Belfast man alleged to have been the British Army’s top mole in the Provisional IRA has died.
Freddie Scappaticci, who was aged in his 70s, always denied he was the agent Stakeknife but was widely described as the leader of the IRA’s notorious “nutting squad” who interrogated and murdered suspected informers during the Troubles.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern said it was a “big own goal” the Northern Ireland Assembly is not operating for the visit of the President.
