Issues

St Patrick’s visit covers Americas

city-view-sao-paulo-2013 Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness broadened the Executive’s horizons by including Brazil in this year’s St Patrick’s Day itinerary but faced criticism at home for holding back information on many details of their travel plans.

The First and deputy First ministers made South America their first stop before travelling on to the USA. Northern Ireland’s exports to Brazil increased from £5.8 million to £27 million between 2006 and 2012. This followed on from their visits to India last April and China last November. The ministers plan to visit China again in May.

In São Paulo, they visited the FAAP University which exchanges STEM subject students with Queen’s and the University of Ulster. Potential investors showed an interest in Northern Ireland’s life sciences, health technology, construction and engineering sectors. Marfrig, Moy Park’s parent company, is based in the city. Robinson and McGuinness also met Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota, in Brasilia and toured an urban regeneration project in Rio.

The move is another sign that the Executive is taking the emergence of the BRIC economies seriously. Brazil overtook the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy last year and Titanic Quarter Chief Executive David Gavaghan expects it to catch up with Ireland as a competitor by 2018. By his reckoning, the province therefore has just five years to build up its advantage.

Los Angeles was the first stop for the ministers in the USA. They attended the launch of the third series of ‘Game of Thrones’ and successfully lobbied for the fourth series to be filmed in the province. The G8 summit, UK City of Culture status and World Police and Fire Games were highlighted at a breakfast for political and business leaders in Washington.

St Patrick’s Day events at the White House are usually upbeat but the impact of the flag protests and dissident attacks could not be ignored.

While the US, British and Irish governments were diplomatic in their remarks, the recent violence was clearly an embarrassment. The three administrations have regularly held up the peace process as a success when dealing with other conflicts.

President Obama commented that “there’s a lot more work to be done before there’s true unity of effort in that country.” Obama looked forward to the G8 summit, which will involve the sixth presidential visit to Northern Ireland since the Clintons’ arrival in 1995.

Robinson and McGuinness updated the President on political and economic developments. McGuinness raised the £18 billion financial package mentioned in the St Andrews Agreement. The Treasury has insisted that this was delivered through the last Comprehensive Spending Review and that extra funds are no longer available due to deficit reduction.

Enda Kenny talked frankly about the province in his speech. “I want you all to understand that this a time of great fragility in Northern Ireland. It’s a time for clear political leadership,” he commented. “We do not want a situation where those [minorities] who have bad thoughts and bad blood want to turn the days back to the dark days of the Troubles.”

Theresa Villiers, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Gerry Adams met new US Secretary of State John Kerry. Adams lobbied Kerry on “outstanding issues” from the political agreements, including an Irish Language Act, border poll and a bill of rights.

Secretary Kerry’s statement on the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement said that the “promise envisioned by the agreement is incomplete.” He emphasised that a “spirit of co-operation” and “an unwavering commitment to the rule of law” were essential.

Northern Ireland continues to enjoy privileged access to the White House and State Department but American attention cannot be taken for granted.

The Obama Administration is, very intentionally, changing its focus from Europe to Asia, which reflects that continent’s rising influence. US exports to Asia rose from $336 billion to $423 billion over the President’s first term in office. The value of Europe-bound exports, meanwhile, was $328 billion in 2008 before dropping and recovering to the same level. This shift underlines the importance of Northern Ireland making the most of its US links and reaching out to new markets.

Although the American visit was the Executive’s highest profile news story so far this year, OFMDFM was evasive when journalists asked about the cost, timetable and size of the delegation.

pe_00322595-us-visit-2013 Speaking to his audience at the Washington breakfast, Robinson appeared to criticise the local press as “whingers and whiners back home who would question us in undertaking such missions”. His “stop reading the Irish News” comment was described as “remarkable” by the newspaper’s editor, Noel Doran.

The Irish News said that transparency about costs mattered as the trip was funded by the tax-payer. Robinson and McGuinness had also each issued statements (with no reference to the other Minister) through their party press offices, which implied that relations between them were tense.

One of the Sinn Féin statements explained that McGuinness was accompanied by three OFMDFM staff, all hotels were booked at “special government rates” and costs would be published “when available”. The most recent released cost of a US visit, for 2010, was £58,465.40.

In contrast, the US Government publishes a flood of information for the press every day, including a breakdown of officials’ expenses and detailed background information on overseas visits. American officials believe that releasing as many details as possible will reduce queries from journalists, who will have to search through a large amount of material for relevant stories.

Marking national days

The US Secretary of State regularly publishes statements to congratulate foreign countries on their national days, and St Patrick’s Day is no exception. In this year’s message, John Kerry commented that Ireland had an “important role as a global advocate for peace and understanding” and looked forward to “deepening our partnership”.

“It is traditional for the US Government to issue a congratulatory message to countries with which we have diplomatic relations on their national days as a gesture of respect and friendship,” a US embassy spokeswoman in London said. Statements for St Andrew’s Day and St David’s Day are prepared by diplomats based in Scotland and Wales while the embassy issues an annual UK-wide statement to mark the Queen’s official birthday.

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