Biden announces trip to United Kingdom and Ireland next week
By Nikki Carvajal, CNN
President Joe Biden will travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland next week, the White House announced early Wednesday morning.
The president will first travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, before traveling to Ireland where “he will discuss our close cooperation on the full range of shared global challenges,” the White House said.
“He will also hold various engagements, including in Dublin, County Louth, and County Mayo, where he will deliver an address to celebrate the deep, historic ties that link our countries and people,” the White House said in a statement.
Biden said in early March that he intended to visit Northern Ireland to mark the upcoming anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which the US helped broker a quarter-century ago to bring an end to decades of sectarian violence.
A presidential visit to Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary of the landmark accord has long been the subject of speculation. The last US president to visit Belfast was Barack Obama in 2013.
The Irish government on Wednesday said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar “looks forward to the forthcoming official visit of the President of the United States to Ireland.”
“I am delighted that President Biden will pay a visit to Ireland. It will be a privilege and a special moment to welcome him back as President of the United States,” Varadkar said in a statement.
Separately, the White House said later Wednesday that King Charles III had extended an invitation to Biden to come to the United Kingdom for an official state visit, and the president accepted.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to provide timing details of a state visit, but suggested it would take place in the “near future.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Betsy Klein, Kevin Liptak and Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.
