The British and Irish Prime Ministers confirm their support for the new political phase in Belfast

Madrid, February 5 (European Press) –

Through a simultaneous trip to Belfast, the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Rishi Sunak and Leo Varadkar, respectively, expressed their support for the new political era beginning in Northern Ireland after two years of a power vacuum, each with a message of confidence. Which was conveyed to key local leaders.

Since Sunday, Northern Ireland has welcomed for the first time in its history Sinn Féin Prime Minister Michelle O'Neill, who hosted Sunak and Varadkar on a day that the Irish Prime Minister did not hesitate to describe as “historic events.” “.

“It was a complicated moment, but patience was the key to the agreement,” Sunak stressed in a statement after his meeting with Varadkar, in an implicit reference to the agreement that London concluded last week with the Democratic Unionist Party. It includes reducing controls on goods coming from Great Britain.

The British Prime Minister hopes that, now that institutions are “back to work again,” the trilateral relations between London, Dublin and Belfast will do the same. In fact, he and Varadkar believe that “a stable, effective and successful Northern Ireland greatly benefits UK-Ireland relations,” a Downing Street statement said.

Sunak stressed, in statements to the media, that his government worked at all times to “protect Northern Ireland’s position” within the United Kingdom as a whole, given the concerns of unionist politicians about the potential side effects of Brexit. In this sense, the British Prime Minister called for ensuring the flow of trade, the main backbone of trade unionists, the BBC reported.

For his part, Varadkar considered it “very important” to continue progress in cooperation with various parties, and represented the main challenge facing the new Northern Irish government in responding to the needs of citizens who have been relying on London's guidelines for nearly two years. Years. . Ireland offers 'help'.

However, the Irish Prime Minister avoided assessing potential constitutional changes such as those put on the table on Sunday by Northern Ireland's new Prime Minister, who proposed holding a referendum on Irish reunification in the next decade.