Obama holds talks with Ulster leaders
FIRST Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness met with US President Barrack Obama at the White House in yesterday.
Mr Obama congratulated the two men, saying he wanted to salute "their outstanding leadership".
During the course of their meeting the ministers briefed the president on recent political developments, including the Stormont vote to transfer policing and justice powers.
They also discussed the US administration's efforts to secure further American investment in the Province.
Mr Robinson said: "The president outlined his support for the transfer of policing and justice powers and discussed his government's continued involvement in the economic development of Northern Ireland.
"We also reiterated our determination not to be deterred from building a peaceful and prosperous society. The stability we are building undermines dissident activity.
"That stands whether we are talking about political dissidents or paramilitary dissidents."
Mr Robinson said that a "stable, peaceful and prosperous society is the antithesis of everything these people stand for".
Mr McGuinness said: "The Obama administration has always provided us with its full backing as we worked towards building a stable political foundation in the north of Ireland and on that foundation we intend to fashion further economic and social progress."
Mr Obama congratulated the Irish and British governments "as well as Secretary Hillary Clinton, in reaffirming the progress that's been made in Northern Ireland".
"We want to be as supportive as possible in advancing the Northern Ireland peace process," the BBC reported the president as having said.
Earlier in the day the ministers addressed business and political leaders, at the annual St Patrick's Day Northern Ireland Bureau breakfast.
Speaking as he arrived, First Minister Peter Robinson said: "Northern Ireland punches well beyond its weight in terms of the access ... I think there are many much larger countries which would envy the access that we have and it's good to see the commitment that the administration has to Northern Ireland."
Mr Robinson was dismissive of SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie's demand that she be allowed into the First and Deputy First Minister's meeting with President Obama.
He said: "We meet the president by his invitation. We know that you do not demand meetings with the leader of the free world.
“I think that’s something that comes by way of invitation rather than demand.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced this week that there will be another US investment conference in Belfast in the autumn but Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said that the last investment conference had produced little tangible investment.
Secretary of State Shaun Woodward defended the plethora of publicly-funded visitors from Northern Ireland, which extended beyond executive ministers to embrace individuals such as Human Rights Commission chief Monica McWilliams, chief constable Matt Baggott and even the clerk of an Assembly committee.
The politicians, policemen, university bosses and quangocrats had their ranks swollen by a coterie of advisers and assistants.
But Mr Woodward said it was right for so many to have crossed the Atlantic.
“America has stood by Northern Ireland ... so it doesn’t surprise me that anyone who’s anyone is here,” he said.
Conservative Shadow Secretary of State Owen Paterson said that there had been little mention of the Ulster Unionists’ opposition to the devolution of policing and justice.
He said that “everyone was as bewildered as we (the Tories) were” about former President George W Bush’s phone call to David Cameron pressing him to encourage the UUP into backing the transfer of powers.
He said that successive US administrations had supported the principle of devolving power from London to Belfast, adding: “Part of a devolved settlement is that local politicians may have different views.”
And Sir Reg Empey said that people in Washington “understood that in democracy you can have opposition” and appreciated his party’s tough decisions in past years when “others were standing outside screaming at us”.
See Morning View, page 18
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
