September 7 () –
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made the first visit by a British leader to Ireland in five years and has agreed with his Irish counterpart, Simon Harris, to “reset” bilateral relations.
In this regard, they agreed to resume annual meetings starting with a meeting scheduled for March of next year. They also agreed to concentrate the dialogue on four areas: security and global issues; climate, energy and technology; growth, trade and investment; and culture, education and ‘people-to-people connections’.
Harris welcomed Starmer to Farmleigh House in Dublin for a working lunch and meetings with business figures, reports the Irish Times. They then attended a match between the Irish and England national football teams at Lansdowne Road Stadium.
The Irish leader stressed that this is an opportunity to “put British-Irish relations on a new path” and to do so they are going to “show what a reset is” after the turbulent Brexit period.
Starmer, for his part, has also highlighted the “time to reset” relations and has advocated “giving real content to those words” and to do so he has appealed to the “joint role” of both governments to implement the Belfast Agreement that put an end to political violence in Northern Ireland or to the affinities on key international issues such as Ukraine or Gaza.
The British Prime Minister has defended the common position in favour of an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and the delivery of aid to Gaza “so that we can move towards the two-state solution.”
Starmer said this was the second time he had met Harris since taking office eight weeks ago, demonstrating the importance both sides attach to improving relations.
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