An Irish Taoiseach will return to the White House for the first time in three years today as Leo Varadkar meets with US President Joe Biden.
The meetings were interrupted by COVID-19 in recent years, with Micheál Martin forced to Skype into the Shamrock Ceremony after testing positive for the virus.
The day will start with a breakfast at the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.
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He will then travel to the White House for a bi-lateral with President Biden.
Before their meeting, the duo will brief the travelling Irish press corps, where it is expected that the US President will confirm more details about his trip to Ireland next month.
The Irish Mirror previously reported that Mr Biden is expected to come for a six day visit that would stretch across Dublin, Belfast and Mayo to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. He confirmed to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an event in California on Monday.
Mr Varadkar and Mr Biden will then take part in a bi-lateral meeting.
The Taoiseach and his delegation will travel to Capitol Hill for a lunch held by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said at the Ireland Funds dinner on Wednesday evening, that one of the main reasons he wanted to become speaker was the host this lunch.
Mr Varadkar will then travel back to the White House for the St Patrick’s Day Ceremony and the exchange of the traditional bowl of shamrock.
Mullingar man Niall Horan tweeted yesterday evening that he will perform at the event.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, the Taoiseach said that he was looking forward to speaking to President Biden about his visit to Ireland and other issues.
He said: “Really want to thank Joe Biden and the administration for their interest in Ireland, their support for us during the Brexit process.
That's been really really valuable, you know, people around the world listen to what the White House says and President Biden said all the right things from our point of view in the past couple of years.
“Also keen to thank him for American support for Ukraine. American leadership at this time is crucial. America is not perfect. There are a lot of times when they make very big foreign policy errors, but largely speaking, it's been a force for good in the last few centuries.
“It stood against fascism and Nazism stood against communism. And now we're standing against what Russia is doing in Ukraine. So I really want to thank him for that and ask America to stay the course.”
Mr Varadkar also said that he intends to speak to Mr Biden about economic issues but will express concerns about America’s Inflation Reduction Act.
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