Biden to visit Belfast to mark 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement

US President Joe Biden is expected in Belfast on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet Biden in Belfast.

The Prime Minister said: “The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement was an incredible moment in our nation’s history. It was a powerfully rare example of people doing the previously unthinkable to create a better future for Northern Ireland.

“It is that promise of a better future that we offered to everyone in Northern Ireland that I will be thinking of first and foremost over the coming days. It is my responsibility as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to ensure we are making good on that promise.

“Northern Ireland – like the rest of the UK – is teeming with opportunities, talent and ingenuity. The biggest thing we can do to improve people’s standard of living and secure a prosperous and thriving Northern Ireland, is economic growth. That’s something I’m relentlessly focused on delivering.”

On Twitter, Biden said: "25 years ago, Northern Ireland’s leaders chose peace.

"The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement ended decades of violence and brought stability.

"I look forward to marking the anniversary in Belfast, underscoring the U.S. commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity."

According to reports in The Belfast Telegraph, police in Northern Ireland have disrupted an IRA bomb plot. Members of the New IRA had reportedly been looking to plant a bomb in Derry.

According to a source: “They were looking for parts to make a bomb."

“The belief is that the New IRA was planning some sort of attack to coincide with Biden’s visit, similar to the mortar attack on the cops in Strabane last November.”

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons