Joe Biden meets Rishi Sunak and Northern Ireland leaders

US President Joe Biden kicked off his public schedule in Northern Ireland on Wednesday after arriving in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The deal, which ended decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands, has faced testing times in recent years amid discord over post-Brexit trade arrangements and political instability in the province's devolved government.

What's on the itinerary?

Biden began his visit by meeting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over coffee on Wednesday morning.

The US President also met with the leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties. It is unclear if they held separate meetings.

"The message is twofold. It's congratulations on 25 years of the Good Friday agreement... (and) to talk about the importance of trying to work on trade and economic policies that benefit all communities as well as the United States," said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who is traveling with Biden.

After the meetings, Biden gave an address at the University of Ulster's new campus in Belfast.

"The dividends of peace are all around us," he said. "This very campus is situated intersection where conflict and bloodshed once held the terrible sway."

Afterward, he will head south to the Republic of Ireland for two-and-a-half days of meetings with officials and distant relatives.

Biden is staunchly proud of his Irish heritage. His great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan, a shoemaker from County Louth, immigrated to the United States in 1849, followed by several other family members.

Unionists unswayed by visit

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has refused to participate in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government for more than a year in protest of trade rules that it says treat Northern Ireland separately from the rest of the United Kingdom, said Biden's visit will not pressure it to change tack.

Sammy Wilson, a DUP lawmaker who sits in the UK Parliament in Westminster, said in an interview on Talk TV that Biden "has got a record of being pro-republican, anti-unionist, anti-British."

The Biden administration dismissed these claims.

"The track record of the president shows that he's not anti-British," Amanda Sloat, US National Security Council Senior Director for Europe, told reporters in Belfast.

"President Biden obviously is a very proud Irish American. He is proud of those Irish roots. But he is also a strong supporter of our bilateral partnership with the UK."

Security has been stepped up ahead of Biden's visit. On Tuesday, masked protesters threw Molotov cocktails at a police van in Londonderry.

zc/rc (AP, Reuters, AFP)