Secretary Clinton's Remarks With UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson Before Their Meeting

Remarks With UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson Before Their Meeting

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

October 19, 2010

---

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, it’s a great pleasure for the State Department to be hosting an investment conference on behalf of Northern Ireland and to have Secretary Paterson here. He is responsible for Northern Ireland in Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg’s government. And it shows a real sign of support and concern that he would be here with me. And I’m looking forward to our conversation about his observations and ideas about the way forward.

SECRETARY PATERSON: Well, thank you very much, Secretary. It is absolutely tremendous that Secretary of State Clinton has organized this conference today. We got a wonderful opportunity in Northern Ireland to build on the process, which is being delivered by successive British, American, and Irish governments, and building up the private sector, helping private business is absolutely part of our program. So I’m really grateful to her and I think it’s a tremendous sign of the continuing interest of Secretary Clinton that we’re all here today. And I’m looking forward to getting on with our talks.

Thank you very much.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you, Secretary.

(Applause.)

QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, have you heard at all about the dissident activity in Northern Ireland?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we’re going to talk about it with Secretary Paterson. Unfortunately, there will always be a small minority that is not willing to take another direction, and I know that the leadership in Northern Ireland, in Ireland, and certainly in the UK are very focused on that, because there’s such a positive story to tell, and we cannot permit a very few to undermine the efforts of so many. Thank you.