St Patrick's Day: NI party leaders to attend White House reception

Stormont's five main party leaders are due to attend the annual St Patrick's Day reception in the White House.

They are expected to meet US President Joe Biden after attending the House Speaker's lunch on Capitol Hill.

Senior business figures from Northern Ireland have also been invited to attend the White House reception.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar will perform the traditional handing over of a bowl of shamrock to the president in the Oval Office.

He and Northern Ireland's political leaders have been in Washington DC for much of this week for a series of events ahead of St Patrick's Day.

Mr Biden is due to make a visit to Northern Ireland next month to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement.

Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has she hoped that devolved government at Stormont would be up and running again by then.

She was speaking after receiving an honorary doctorate from Ulster University at a ceremony in Washington.

Last year, as Speaker she warned the UK government against undermining the Good Friday Agreement through its actions against the post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

She had warned that if that happened there would be no US-UK trade deal.

But last month a deal was struck between the UK and the EU on trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Ms Pelosi said she "fully supports" that agreement - known as the Windsor Framework - and that it opened up the possibility of a trade deal between the US and the UK.

The DUP has been boycotting power-sharing at Stormont over its opposition to the trade arrangements that resulted from the original Brexit deal.