The Indian-origin prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Ireland are overseeing a historic power-sharing agreement

London:

The Indian-origin prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Rishi Sunak and Leo Varadkar, met on Monday to oversee a landmark power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland, where a devolved government takes charge after two years.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met in the Parliament Buildings at Stormont Castle in Belfast where they praised efforts to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.

They also met separately with political leaders, including First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly, who heads up the region's executive. Pengelly belongs to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

“Now is the time to get to work,” Rishi Sunak said after his meetings.

“We have worked hard to protect Northern Ireland's place in the union and have built on what we achieved through the Windsor Framework to ensure the smooth flow of UK trade and all the benefits that exist as a result of Brexit can be realised.” , He said.

While Southampton-born Rishi Sunak has roots in Punjab, Dublin-born Leo Varadkar has family roots in Maharashtra.

In a reading of the historic discussions between British Indian and Irish Indian leaders, Downing Street said Rishi Sunak began by congratulating the Irish rugby team on their emphatic victory over France in the Six Nations competition on Friday.

This was a difficult time, but patience was necessary to reach an agreement. Now that the institutions were back up and running again, he wanted to see all three branches doing equally well. The Downing Street statement said: “The sense of relief and optimism that people were feeling in Northern Ireland was so amazing it made it all worthwhile.”

The two leaders agreed that a “stable, effective and successful” Northern Ireland – which is part of the UK and shares a border with Ireland – has greatly benefited UK-Ireland relations.

The British government has already committed to providing a £3.3bn financial package, which Rishi Sunak described as “generous and fair”, for any new Stormont executive.

The return of power-sharing came after months of negotiations involving the government and the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. It withdrew from power-sharing in February 2022, in protest against post-Brexit trade deals for Northern Ireland agreed between the UK and the EU.

Last week, DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson announced that his party had reached an agreement with No 10 which would mean there would be no “routine” checks on goods crossing from Great Britain into Northern Ireland. He said that on this basis, and with legislation passed in Westminster to implement further changes, his party would return to government.

“It is a pleasure to be here on an important day for Northern Ireland and to see the transition to democracy and the Good Friday Agreement working again,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wrote in the visitors’ book at the Parliament Buildings in Belfast. The Good Friday Agreement, signed by then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern in 1998, with the support of then US President Bill Clinton, brought an end to thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.

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