During his first presidential visit to Northern Ireland on Wednesday, April 12, on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement, Joe Biden called on local leaders to overcome their differences to emerge from the political crisis that paralyzes institutions.

The visit comes against a delicate political backdrop, with the Democratic Unionist Party boycotting the coalition government for more than a year, due to a post-Brexit trade dispute.

"I hope it is not too presumptuous of me to say that I believe that the democratic institutions that established the Good Friday Agreement remain essential for the future of Northern Ireland," he declared in a speech at the University of Ulster in Belfast.

"An effective devolved government that reflects and is accountable to the people of Northern Ireland, a government that strives to find solutions to difficult problems together, will attract even more opportunities to this region. So I hope that the assembly and the executive will be restored soon," the US president said. "It's up to you to judge, not me, but I hope it happens."

Biden said U.S. investment can help fuel economic growth.

"Your story is our history," he said. "And more importantly, your future is the future of America."

Keeping the peace

Biden, who had previously met with leaders of Northern Ireland's main political parties, said maintaining the hard-won peace 25 years ago in the British province was a "priority" for the United States.

Negotiated with active American participation, the text signed on 10 April 1998 put an end to three decades of deadly clashes between unionists, mainly Protestants, and mostly Catholic republicans, with the involvement of the British army.

Although this peace has endured, Northern Ireland is currently without a functioning government. Stormont, the seat of the assembly, has been suspended since the Democratic Unionist Party, which formed half of a power-sharing government, withdrew a year ago.

In addition, a senior police officer was shot and wounded in February, an attack that the authorities attributed to Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to the peace process.

"The enemies of peace will not prevail," Biden said. His arrival was openly criticised by the unionists, who were fiercely attached to membership of the United Kingdom.

Belfast is the first and fast stage of a journey that will quickly take a more sentimental turn: Joe Biden will travel to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday afternoon, in the footsteps of his maternal ancestors.

With AFP and Reuters

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