Biden and Sunak to hold talks in Belfast as US president commemorates Good Friday Agreement
Joe Biden will hold talks with Rishi Sunak this morning after arriving in Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Sunak greeted Mr Biden after Air Force One landed at Belfast International Airport last night for the start of the US president’s four-day visit to the island of Ireland.
The pair will meet later, with Downing Street saying they would discuss “the UK and US’s extensive and deep relationship, evidenced by collaborative UK and US investment in Northern Ireland’s economy and people”.
But it comes amid ongoing paralysis in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont – established in the peace deal in 1998 – with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to re-join the power sharing agreement over the UK government’s Brexit agreement.
Read more:
Peace, hope and paralysis – the agreement’s legacy
The US president will meet the leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties after holding talks with Mr Sunak – but the White House said there will not be a formal group meeting with them all.
Following these meetings, Mr Biden will deliver an address at Ulster University’s new £350m Belfast campus where his remarks will commemorate the Good Friday Agreement – the deal that largely ended 30 years of bloodshed between republicans and loyalists.
Sources told Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates that the president is expected to dangle investment cash for the region during his speech, but only if Stormont is up and running again.
He said: “The implied message to the DUP will be get back into power sharing and the billions will flow. If not, your constituents miss out.”
Mr Sunak will not attend Mr Biden’s keynote speech, with Downing Street on Tuesday denying that the engagement between the pair would be “low-key”.
President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One
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.
A major security operation will be in place for Mr Biden’s Northern Ireland visit at an estimated cost of £7m.
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Around 300 officers from other parts of the UK will travel to the area to help police a series of events to mark the anniversary.
Mr Biden will travel across the border to Ireland later today where he will tour Carlingford Castle in County Louth, an area to which he has traced his ancestral roots.
Then it’s off to Dublin, where he is expected to visit Irish President Michael D Higgins on Thursday.
Mr Biden will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell at the president’s official residence, Aras an Uachtarain.
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Why is Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland significant?
Following that ceremony, he will meet the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and address the Irish parliament.
A banquet dinner at Dublin Castle will follow on Thursday evening.
The president’s trip will end with a visit to County Mayo on Friday, where he has connected with distant cousins.
A descendant of Irish immigrants to the United States, Mr Biden will deliver remarks at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, County Mayo, to which his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks in 1827.
The bricks were used to build the cathedral and their sale helped to fund Mr Blewitt’s passage to the US with his family in 1851.
Read more:
How Irish is Joe Biden?
Biden is invested personally and politically
Joe Biden is invested in defending the Good Friday Agreement because it is one of the greatest achievements of American diplomacy of our times – but he cares for personal reasons, too.
The US president is a proud Irish American and is hugely supportive of the cause of peace on the island of Ireland.
He says his Irish ancestry has been a part of his soul for as long as he can remember.
He traces his Irish heritage through his great-great-grandfather – who left Ireland’s potato famine in the nineteenth century.
He is so overtly Irish that critics question his ability to act as an honest broker when it comes to Northern Ireland.
The White House rejects that and insists he plays a crucial role like presidents before him in promoting peace in the land of his forebears.
He comes to the island of Ireland representing his office and will hope to celebrate all that it has achieved in bringing that peace.
In the 1990s President Clinton and his envoy George Mitchell did much of the heavy lifting in the torturous negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement.
Joe Biden is following their path to reaffirm that commitment and help ensure their work is finally done.
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What is the Good Friday Agreement?
The president’s trip comes at an uncertain time for Northern Ireland, where power sharing in Stormont is still on hold and the terror threat has been raised to severe – meaning an attack is highly likely.
Mr Biden’s arrival came hours after four suspected pipe bombs were found by police in a cemetery in Northern Ireland.
Officers sealed off the City Cemetery in Creggan, Derry/Londonderry, on Tuesday following the discovery of a suspicious device.
There were some disturbances on Easter Monday when petrol bombs were thrown at an armoured police Land Rover in Creggan during what police described as an “unnotified” march by dissident republicans.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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