Ulster Unionist leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, has congratulated Joe Biden on his election as the 46th President of the United States of America.
Mr Aiken said:
“The election of Joe Biden, after one of the most bitterly contested US Presidential Elections in recent times, hopefully represents a turning point in the US democratic system. The President elect has substantial challenges; to help defeat CoVID; to provide international leadership in tackling the growing unrest in the Mid and Near Easts, but above all, to restore stability and faith in democracy within the United States itself. The polarisation of politics, which we here in Northern Ireland are regrettably all too familiar with, has infected the body politic in the United States. Solving that will be the new President’s biggest challenge.
“As to the implications for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, there has been much speculation pre-election of the attitude of the new President and his administration to the Belfast Agreement and post-BREXIT trade, I would encourage those taking office to read the agreement, focus on the implications of an Irish Sea Border as much as one North/South and also to remember, in an increasingly unstable world, that the United Kingdom has been a steadfast ally of the United States across the globe – now is not the time to dismantle and fracture friendships when the standing of the US across much of the world has been so diminished. I look forward to his first visit to Northern Ireland as President of the United States.”