Mike Nesbitt: We must impress on the Americans that there are one million unionist voices in Northern Ireland

​Mr Nesbitt was the sole unionist scheduled to speak at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy event in New York on Monday evening (or afternoon in east coast US time).

It comes as a raft of unionist politicians travel to the USA to lobby US politicians ahead of St Patrick’s Day.

Mr Nesbitt noted that when unionists walked out of a conference organised by the organisation in 1994, the then-leaders of unionism had hurt their own objectives, because it meant they had just left the floor open to nationalists to make their case in front of the world’s media.

Titled ‘Trans-Atlantic Solutions to Regional Challenges’, the other politicians due to speak at the event were Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein, Naomi Long of Alliance, and Colum Eastwood of the SDLP (the DUP had been invited, but its main delegation was travelling to DC, not New York, and the party cited scheduling issues as a reason for not being at the event).

"I shall be ensuring there is a unionist voice in the room,” said Mr Nesbitt, the Strangford MLA who led the party from 2012 to 2017.

"Too often the unionist position goes by default. No one is going to make our case for us, we have to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.

"I was here in 1994 when the National Committee on American Foreign Policy ran their first conference on Northern Ireland.

"They wanted the leaders of all five main NI parties there, but when President Clinton gave Gerry Adams a visa to attend the event, Jim Molyneaux and Ian Paisley not only withdrew from the conference they cancelled their flights.

"I believe that was a mistake because no one articulated the unionist position in an event that attracted some 40 television crews and other media.

“I find when you ask for a hearing in the USA you usually get a fair one.

"It’s not about securing hoards of converts, but you can shift people’s positions, encouraging them to think differently and more deeply about the need to respect the rights of the million or so pro-Union citizens of Northern Ireland.

"There is a clear appetite here in engage with an better understand unionism.”