White House spokesman denies President Biden is “anti-British.” A White House official said Wednesday that U.S. President Joseph Biden’s pride in his Irish heritage does not prevent him from supporting Northern Ireland’s peace process.
Biden, passionately proud of his Irish lineage, landed in Belfast late on Tuesday and will spend little over half a day in the U.K. province before heading south to the Irish Republic for two-and-a-half days of meetings with authorities and distant relatives.
His first visit to Northern Ireland as president coincides with the 25th anniversary of the peace treaty, but the devolved powersharing government, a fundamental aspect of it, is in disarray.
“The president’s track record demonstrates that he’s not anti-British,” Amanda Sloat, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for Europe, told Belfast media.
“Irish American President Biden is clearly proud. He’s Irish. He strongly supports our bilateral ties with the U.K.”
Sloat replied to Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) legislator Sammy Wilson’s Wednesday claim that Biden was “anti-British.”
On Tuesday, former DUP leader Arlene Foster told G.B. News that Biden “hates the United Kingdom.”
The trip has focused on the DUP’s more than year-long blockade of the devolved government over post-Brexit trade laws that treat the province differently from the rest of the U.K.
The DUP and the other four main political parties in the province were scheduled to see Biden on Wednesday morning, but the DUP said the visit would not sway them.
As Northern Ireland commemorates the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Biden said he wanted to “maintain the peace” on Tuesday.
Britain’s withdrawal from the E.U. and its desire to obtain a divorce settlement that did not harm the peace pact has strained relations between the two communities and London and Washington.
Britain’s “special relationship” with the U.S. is based on defense, intelligence, economic and cultural connections—however, a failure to reach a free trade pact after Brexit has frustrated some British MPs.
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