US president Joe Biden is set to arrive in Belfast on Tuesday night to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement as London urged the region’s biggest unionist party to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s political institutions.
Biden’s visit, which will be followed by a longer trip to the Republic of Ireland, comes on the heels of a new UK-EU deal covering post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland, known as the Windsor framework.
The president’s trip comes after almost a year of political limbo in Northern Ireland caused by the post-Brexit trade regime. It also comes after police last week raised the terrorism threat level in the region and warned of possible violence at Easter Monday marches.