Joe Biden marks 25 years of Good Friday Agreement: Northern Ireland Secretary says 1998 deal will stand the test of another 25 years

Chris Heaton-Harris was speaking to the News Letter in the wake of Joe Biden’s speech at Ulster University Belfast today, at the north end of the city centre (which during the Troubles and their immediate aftermath was relatively run down).

Mr Heaton-Harris said the speech showed he was “a president who lives Northern Ireland as much as he loves Ireland itself, and he's committed to making this part of our UK work better for the future”.

• WATCH / LISTEN for yourself: US president Joe Biden's full uncut address to Northern Ireland 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement

He added that Mr Biden has shown himself to be “committed to the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement... and what it can potentially bring for the next 25” years.

It was put to him that some unionists never favoured the 1998 deal, and some of those who did have since changed their minds.

So does he believe the treaty and the Assembly it birthed will still be here in another quarter-century?

"Yeah I do actually,” he said.

"And I can completely understand where some people were back those 25 years ago.

"I understand why Sir Jeffrey decided it wasn't for him at that time. But a lot has changed over this 25 years, and elements of the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement have affected everybody in Northern Ireland – doesn't matter what their community – positively.

"I'm stood here in a university with 16,000 students and lecturers which would've been in a geographical location which no-one would have wanted to hang around in very long.

"Let's bank the wins.”

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