UK premier meets Irish counterpart in his 1st meeting of British-Irish Council

LONDON

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met his Irish counterpart Simon Harris on Friday in Edinburgh as part of the British-Irish Council (BIC).

Irish Taoiseach, or Prime Minister Harris expressed pleasure to have talks with Starmer at the Council meeting.

"He and I agreed at our meetings in Chequers and Farmleigh this year that our attendance would send a clear signal from Taoiseach and Prime Minister of the reset of British and Irish relations," he wrote on X.

Before the meeting, Harris had discussions with Michelle O’Neill, first minister of Northern Ireland and John Swinney, first minister of Scotland, as well as Eluned Morgan, first minister of Wales.

Micheal Martin, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Ireland, also met Starmer and had a "warm and constructive" meeting.

"Welcome the renewed commitment to the British-Irish relationship. Discussed Northern Ireland including legacy issues, EU-UK relations and the forthcoming Ireland-UK summit," he wrote on X.

It was Starmer's first meeting of the BIC, which aims to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of the UK and Ireland, since its establishment in 1999.

'Significance of the partnership'

The British government released a statement on the meeting between Starmer and Harris, saying both premiers discussed the history of the Council and its important origins in the historic Good Friday Agreement.

They remarked on the valuable cooperation between the UK government, Irish government, devolved governments and crown dependencies - twenty-five years since its first meeting in December 1999," it said.

It noted that Starmer highlighted the "significance of the partnership and looked forward to future opportunities," including a UK-Ireland summit in March. “They also discussed legacy issues, including work to make progress to support communities and victims in Northern Ireland," it added.

Belfast in Northern Ireland is where a fragile peace was established after years of violence.

The Troubles -- an era of conflict between the British government and pro-British paramilitaries on one side and Irish Republicans and nationalists on the other -- ended in 1998 when the Belfast Agreement put an end to decades of armed struggle in the divided UK region of Northern Ireland.

The UK and the Republic of Ireland signed the deal, brokered by the US and eight political parties in Northern Ireland, on April 10, 1998.

The deal, dubbed the Good Friday Agreement, largely saw the end of the Troubles-era violence, in which 3,500 people were killed.