US President Joe Biden said his priority was to “keep the peace” in Northern Ireland as he set off on Air Force One for a visit to Belfast.
He will arrive in the city tonight to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement.
The 1998 deal brought an end to the Troubles – the decades-long violent conflict in Northern Ireland in which thousands of people were killed.
A huge security operation is already in place in Belfast for Mr Biden’s visit.
While he has praised what politicians did to secure peace in 1998, his visit is overshadowed by the fact that Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government is not functioning.
It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – one of the biggest parties at Stormont – pulled out as part of a protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.
His visit to Belfast will be the first leg of a four-day stay in Ireland, during which he will discuss his Irish roots and meet Irish relatives
