Dublin, 9 March 2022 (TDI): Ireland’s Foreign Minister and Defence Minister, Simon Coveney TD, and Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson MSP met in Dublin for Joint Bilateral Review.
In the meeting, the two reviewed progress in the implementation of the Ireland-Scotland Joint Bilateral Review 2021-25. This meeting is the first annual review meeting between Ireland and Scotland.
Minister @simoncoveney welcomed Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs & Culture @AngusRobertson to Dublin today for the first annual review of Joint Bilateral Review 2021-25
Both reaffirmed shared ambitions for 🇮🇪🏴relations
📜➡️https://t.co/OLU0sCpyYw pic.twitter.com/LuLaze3ZkT
— Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) March 9, 2022
The Joint Bilateral Review was initiated in January 2021. In this bilateral review, there are forty-one recommendations across six areas. These areas include Government to Government; Business and Economy; Community and Diaspora; Culture; Research and Academic; and Rural, Coastal, and Island Communities.
This meeting is the first annual review meeting afterward this will follow the annual ministerial meeting. This ministerial meeting will ensure that their ambitions are realized.
Ministers reviewed the report’s recommendations and found that some certain areas have made progress by almost 60%. In the meeting, both representatives were ambitious for the implementation of the Joint Bilateral Review.
In addition, they highlighted the important political and official level engagement for instance summits of the British Irish Council. Furthermore, they discussed progress in cooperation between respective Health departments on efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both representatives are agreed that the report and recommendations of the Review would continue to guide the Ireland-Scotland collaboration until 2025. They added that new collaborations are also planned across all themes this year.
In this regard, the “Literary Cities: Edinburgh” exhibition, a joint innovation challenge will be launched by the Scottish Government’s CivTech public sector accelerator program, Western Development Commission in Ireland, along with the season of events at the Museum of Literature Ireland in Dublin.
This meeting is regarded as an opportunity for Coveney and Robertson to discuss the political situation across Ireland and Scotland, and more broadly, including EU-UK developments.
