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For the best part of a year at least, the prospect of this presidential visit has been discussed among diplomats. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Washington’s deep pride, seeing itself as a midwife to the 1998 Belfast Good Friday Agreement, ensured this date was pencilled in to the White House diary – and those of British and American diplomats – long ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But amid the reminiscing about 1998, the politics of 2023 swirls; stirring a loose idea into an actual visit and then moulding its scale, or lack of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The prime minister’s diplomatic triumph in re-casting the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland has not – yet at least – delivered its most sought after domestic prize – the restoration of power-sharing devolved government in Belfast, that cornerstone of the peace deal 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Democratic Unionist Party are not happy with what is known as the Windsor Framework and are not willing to go back to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont – and so there can be no moment with a grandiose backdrop and smiles of success. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And so an awkward, if frequent political impasse here hangs over this blink and you’ll miss it visit from both the president and prime minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Because yes, after months of diplomatic chatter about it, it doesn’t actually add up to much. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n- Is Biden Northern Ireland trip a missed opportunity?<\/li>\n
- Does the Good Friday Agreement still work for NI?<\/li>\n
- Why Ireland is so important to Joe Biden <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There has been a smidgen of tension between the White House and Downing Street about the timetabling of the leaders’ itineraries which probably hasn’t helped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It would have been odd if President Biden had come here and not been met by the prime minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But we won’t see very much of them together beyond a handshake at the airport and a meeting on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Rishi Sunak won’t be at President Biden’s speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And the president will be in Northern Ireland for only around 15 hours, for around half of which he’ll be in bed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After that, Joe Biden’s much talked about Irish heritage will draw him to the Republic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A mix of family history and made-for-television imagery the year before a presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As my colleague Sarah Smith writes here, with 30 million Americans claiming Irish roots, the personal and the political will overlap for him rather neatly in the next few days. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For the prime minister, it’ll be straight back to London on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He won’t meet Northern Ireland’s political parties. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The rationale of those around Mr Sunak is that overt cajoling of the DUP now could prove counter-productive. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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No 10 is seeking to emphasise a more prominent role for the prime minister at Good Friday Agreement commemorations here next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n