Joe Biden
The SDLP Leader said that President Elect Biden has a packed domestic and foreign agenda but that Ireland will be an ally and friend to this US administration.
Said the Foyle MP: “I want to offer my warmest congratulations to President Elect Joe Biden, his family and his extraordinary team.
“This is an overdue moment of hope that we should all celebrate.
“The past four years have felt like an interminable march toward a politics defined by division, fear and resentment.
“Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the wave of narrow, right wing populism across Europe has posed a serious and sustained challenge to the vision and values of parties and people across the world. This result is a welcome reprieve.
“And it is particularly welcome because of the strong support Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democratic leaders have shown for the primacy of the Good Friday Agreement in the context of Brexit.
“We now have powerful allies in the White House and in Congress who will not stand for any attempt by the British Government to renege on their international obligations in the Ireland Protocol if they want a trade deal.
“It would be easy, and understandable, today to turn to smug satisfaction at the results of the US election.
“And while I am, personally and politically, delighted at the victory of President Elect Joe Biden, we should all know that the environment that created the Trump administration has not receded. Nor is it confined to the United States.
“We need to reach out to those who have been marginalised and dispossessed to provide them with hope that things can be different. We have to show them that our values and vision are relevant in this new decade.
“The unique bond of friendship and history that binds the people of Ireland and America together was always going to survive the strain of the last four years.
“I am looking forward to strengthening that relationship and building on the commitments to Ireland made by President Elect Biden in the time ahead.”
