MADRID, April 9. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has remembered the importance of the Good Friday Agreement which marked the beginning of the end of the Ulster conflict at the start of the 25th anniversary of the signing which will feature the president of the United States, Joe Biden, as a special guest.
The agreement, signed on 10 April 1998, laid the foundations for a framework of mutual respect between the two parties and, on the political front, gave rise to a new Belfast-based Parliament and a coalition government. The Nationalists, led by the Democratic Union Party (DUP), and the Republicans, led by Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), were forced to sit at the same table.
Armed groups abandoned armed struggle and there were liberations, while London agreed to abandon much of its military presence as a détente gesture, in a practically festive atmosphere that went beyond political protocol and of which public figures were a part.
“The Good Friday Agreement represents a remarkable moment in our nation’s history, and a powerful and rare example of how a group of people are doing the previously unthinkable to create a better future for Northern Ireland.” know Sunak.
“In the days ahead I will be thinking, above all, about the promise of a better future that we offer all Northern Irish people. It is my responsibility as Prime Minister of the UK to ensure that we deliver that,” he added.
Biden will arrive in the United Kingdom on Tuesday evening and is due to visit Belfast where the two leaders will remember the mediation work undertaken by then US president, Bill Clinton, to end decades of bloody conflict.
“Prime Minister Sunak will use President Biden’s visit and his engagement with business leaders and others in Belfast to celebrate Northern Ireland’s success and encourage further long-term investment,” the British Prime Minister’s office added in a statement published this Sunday.
“Web specialist. Incurable twitteraholic. Explorer. Organizer. Internet nerd. Avid student.”