Joe Biden has dangled a $6bn (£5bn) carrot in front of Northern Ireland’s leaders with a promise to boost the country’s economy with US investment if power sharing is restored.
In a thinly veiled message to the Democratic Unionist party, which has been boycotting the devolved government for more than a year, the US president told an audience in Belfast that American investors were ready to “triple” the $2bn already invested.
“The simple truth is that peace and economic opportunity go together,” Biden said.
He reminded representatives of the region’s five biggest parties, who sat at the front of the auditorium, of how transformative the Good Friday agreement had been 25 years ago and urged them to put the past behind them and look at the prosperity that could flow in the next quarter of a century.
In the past 25 years, the gross domestic product of Northern Ireland had doubled, while in “just the past decade” almost $2bn in US investment had gone into the economy, he said.
“I predict to you if things continue to move in the right direction, [it] will more than triple,” he said. “There are scores of major American corporations wanting to come here, wanting to invest.
“It is up to us to keep this going, keep going in the work that has been done every day for the last 25 years.”
The DUP leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, welcomed Biden’s visit but said it “doesn’t change the political dynamic in Northern Ireland”.
He said: “I had a brief conversation with the president, and he made clear that it’s not his job, as we heard in his speech, to take decisions for political leaders in Northern Ireland.
“But the United States stands ready to support Northern Ireland in whatever way it can. So I welcome his visit here today – it’s good to see the president coming and we hope to see investment into Northern Ireland flowing from his efforts and those of his special envoy.”
Speaking at Ulster University in Belfast, Biden – citing the cyber and tech industries, green energy and young entrepreneurs – said the opportunities for Northern Ireland to lift itself into becoming a major part of the UK economy were “incredible”.
He urged political leaders to “sustain the peace”, promising it would “unleash this incredible economic opportunity”.
Biden’s special economic envoy for Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy III, would be heading a trade delegation to the region “maybe later this year” to “supercharge” a new wave of investment, Biden promised.
He urged the DUP to return to power-sharing arrangements at Stormont and said an “effective devolved government … is going to draw even greater opportunity in this region”.
Kennedy later told reporters that US corporations always sought stability as a prerequisite for investment.
Biden said: “I hope the assembly and the executive will soon be restored.” Cautious not to be seen as interfering, he quickly added: “That is a judgment for you to make, not me, but I hope it happens.”
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He told the audience that he was part-English by birth but he swerved commentary over any alleged pro-nationalist bias.
Donaldson was seen beaming while having convivial chats with Kennedy and later on an informal walkabout with Biden.
He said restoration of power sharing would only happen if the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, took steps to remove the remaining Brexit barriers to trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Sunak missed Biden’s speech in order to visit a senior PSNI officer who was shot in Northern Ireland earlier this year. Sunak is understood to have met DCI John Caldwell and his family at a hospital in the north-west. The PSNI described it as a “private visit” and would not comment.
Earlier, one of Biden’s senior aides was forced to deny that the president was “anti-British” after accusations by the former DUP leader Arlene Foster that the US president “hates the UK”.
The party’s chief whip, Sammy Wilson, when asked about Biden’s visit, said his party would “not be bought”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, the MP for East Antrim said: “On one hand, he [Biden] says he’s here to help the peace process and the Good Friday agreement; on the other hand he has done his best to undermine the Good Friday agreement and its institutions, and indeed his backing of the EU against the UK government, trying to force [the] UK government into a corner to accept EU interference in Northern Ireland, has not helped the process and has led to the collapse of the institutions.”
The atmosphere at Ulster University was reverent and jovial, with the president working the room and posing for selfies and handshakes with party leaders after his speech.
Doug Beattie, the head of the Ulster Unionist party, and Colum Eastwood, the leader of the SDLP, said Biden had spoken to them about the economic opportunities in their private conversations, underlining the message from the US.
Time was also set aside for the Northern Irish actor James Martin, who became the first person with Down’s syndrome to have the leading role in an Oscar-winning movie, after starring in the short film An Irish Goodbye.
